Winter's Night
by WindStar
Summary: Rewrite - Kousei had made the mistake of trusting someone he never should have in the past. Now, years later. Kouichi and Kouji have both been kidnapped and are being held against their will by a man who will make them do whatever he wants. Even murder.
1. Chapter 1

**Windstar: **This is the re-write of my story **On A Winter's Day. **This story is much longer, and much more detailed then the original. Fans of the original will find many similarities in scenes and information, but this version is much more comprehensive. I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of the summer. Apologies for the many, _many,_ delays. I hope you all enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Digimon, nor will I be receiving any profit for this work. All rights belong to the original creators, of which - I am not.

**Chapter One: **

_Date: Unimportant_

_Time: 1245_

_Author: Kouichi Kohaku_

_Memories blurred and time frames shifted darkly. It has been only one year since the end of the chaos that struck our home and our lives violently and brutally for what seems like ages. Mother tells me it will go away soon, that the harsh times will pass and be replaced by only the good memories. I have not the heart to tell her she is wrong, and that the memories will never disappear. _

_They are heightened in moments of distress and they are extenuated in moments of terror, but they are also shortened and somewhat ignorable in times of clarity. This ebb and flow will never cease. Like a river it will never stop. It will simply go on forever, aided by the rains and the dark seasons. _

_Kouji stopped calling our friends nearly two weeks ago. They will always be our friends, but they understand that this is truly a time for us to be apart from them. They know that we need to heal, and while we still attempt to keep in touch with our mothers: there are more important things to do at this moment. _

_Financially, we have no set income. However, the money that we received recently has been more then enough to cover for our expenses. Not to mention Kibo and his wife have been caring for us for the past three weeks. It is with them that the memories started to blur. I can't remember if things have happened the way that they seem to have happened, or if they have been completely altered in some way shape or form. _

_Kibo assures me that it's part of the healing process, but I can't be certain. I don't even know what I'm healing from. I don't even know what I'm trying to do anymore. The court case is over, we have received a huge amount of money as a settlement, and we did our time in community service as an appropriate punishment for the crimes that we did despite everything. _

_Kibo took us out of the country not long after it was all wrapped up. Kouji and I said goodbye to our mothers and we left, we needed to leave. As much as Japan has always been our home, we couldn't stay there any longer. We just needed to get away. We needed to escape. _

_The road trip in America was Kibo's brother's idea. He's been keeping in touch more then anyone else. He apparently set up a place for us in his house for when we returned. I don't know why he's so keen on helping us, but ever since we've met it has been this way. We couldn't ask for a better friend though, however between the two of them (Kibo and his brother [Yujo], I mean) we have successfully garnered a new definition for father. _

_Our birth father, the one that started all of this mess, is no longer alive. I can't say that I'm too sad about it, however it has been a wedge that has creased itself brilliantly between Kouji and me for many months now. Kouji assures me that everything is fine and that he understood the situation, but there are times when I see him crying when he thinks he's alone, and I step back and let him continue to think that I don't know he's sad. _

_Yujo suggested that I write this down, something about putting my feelings into words that is supposed to make the healing process go faster. I don't understand, but I don't doubt that he seems to know what he's talking about. Kibo writes books for a living, and he certainly seems to have healed from the past that he tries so desperately to get away from at times. _

_I can't help but wonder who is actually healing from this road trip, us, or him. _

_I can't help but realize; that I truly don't care. _

_Things started so long ago, so very long ago…and yet it wasn't that far in the past. Only a few years…and yet it is the span of my lifetime as well. Intermingled and twisted and tangled in lies and chaos, and it revolves solely around the simple and irreversible truth that things can and will go wrong if they are given the opportunity to. _

_I've spoken to Kibo about these things, and he has started to help me organize my thoughts, help me give them life and purpose. Now that it's all done, now that there's no one demanding a strict and promising answer that I can only stutter through as I stare brokenly at the bodies of tortured friends; I realize that I do need an outlet. I need to get this out the only way that I know how, or at least the only way that I'm comfortable _learning _how. _

_This introduction, this _prologue_, of my life has started out as a brief diagnostic expos__é__ of my emotions at this point in time. How do I feel about the events that have passed? I could not begin to express them. For to me, the emotions have never been given names. They simple are there – a burning and hating desire that scorches through my life and cascades down my back into my wounded hands. _

_What I see, what I have seen, all of these things have changed my perspective on life. I have become jaded, I have become cynical; or at least more then before. _

_While this document will not be composed entirely of my first person missives and feelings (quite the contrary, I intend to reveal very little in this format…I intend to be purposefully vague), I feel the urge to relay this warning to those who wish to enter upon my life. _

_Read if you will; read if you dare to experience it. _

_All I have said is fact, and all I have said has truly occurred. There are countless news articles and countless pages of disgusting literature on what has been reported. You may walk through the halls of my hell and see the photographic evidence of my purgatory. _

_I announce this life to you not as a way to garner fame, nor even fortune. I wish only to be free of these memories, and perhaps, I wish to feel forgiveness; forgiveness from those who do not know me personally, and can only judge me from the actions that I have done. _

_So please, read onwards…read onwards. Read my story. Read my brother's story. Read Takuya, and Tomoki, and Junpei, and Izumi's story. But most importantly, read it…and decide for yourself. Decide truly and honestly. _

_Did any of us deserve forgiveness?_

**Entry One: **

**Author: Kibo**

**Sources: Takeru Takaishi, Takuya Kanbara, Tomoki Himi, Izumi Orimoto, Junpei Shibayama, Kouji Kohaku, Kouichi Kohaku**

There is a place called the digital world. It is not an online community, a MMORPG, or some other such community. It certainly sounds like it would be though, and perhaps that is why the truth behind the digital world is one of the most obvious things that have ever come to pass, and yet at the same time one of the Earth's best guarded secrets. The truth lies in the inability to realize that it exists.

The first children to ever were a group of summer camp enthusiasts who were swept away by a renegade tsunami. Of course it sounds fictional the moment that that's put into print, but it is truly what happened. Proof of this stems from the extensive sightings of monsters all across the world in that particular year. Some may recall ghost like creatures floating down city sidewalks, while others may reminisce on dinosaurs and talking dogs with horns on their heads.

As soon as these appearances became known to the public, these creatures, or digital monsters (digimon as they're generally called, and lovingly shortened to) vanished. For a time, select few children around the world maintained a connection to them, but they faded out. Memories of these creatures faded away into the dark and empty corners of the mind. It didn't take long for even these figments to pass away, and to vanish into the abyss.

Several years later, another attack occurred on the country of Japan. Another set of children stepped up to take up arms and save the world. Their attacks varied and their partners were different, but the result was the same (clearly) as we're all still alive and thanking them for it.

Then came the group that is of most importance to this tale. These children, their names are listed above as sources for this text. All of them, excluding Takeru Takashi, were involved in the trials that they faced in the digital world. At the time, Kouji and Kouichi's surnames were Minamoto and Kimura respectively. It was many years later when they decided on a change.

These young warriors were given a choice to save the digital world from disaster, and they agreed to go. For each generation the world has varied and changed. Time has flown differently for countless years; their time being much faster in comparison to ours. Only two decades on Earth was equal to roughly two millennia in the Digital World.

Much had changed. Much needed to be fixed, and it is the children above who fixed it. A digimon called Lucemon had the intention to destroy the world, and it was their job to defeat him. On the way, Kouji and Kouichi met each other for the first time. Despite being identical twins, they had not met face to face since they were toddlers. Kouji could not recall a single memory of his older brother, and Kouichi only knew him from his grandmother informing him of the younger twin's existence.

Lucemon was a dangerous foe, and only from the bravery and sacrifice of Kouichi towards his brother and friends did they garner the power they needed to survive. For Kouichi did not arrive in the digital way the same way the others had: Kouichi's soul had been disconnected from his body after he had experienced a fatal fall on Earth. After his sacrifice, his soul had vanished and the children had been resigned to believing he had sacrificed his life to them.

When they returned to Earth and more importantly: Shibuya Station, the digital world gave one last gift to the children: it saved Kouichi's life and resuscitated him. They all survived, and the world had been saved, only now: Kouichi and Kouji were left with a predicament. It is this chance meeting and that fatal predicament that has shaped them into the people that they are today.

If they had simply walked away from one another and never once opened their mouths to bring awareness to the knowledge of each other's existence: they would never have experienced the pains and the tribulations that now haunts their footsteps and darkens their memories.

"Father…" Kouji had decided on instead, standing before his Kousei Minamoto as he sat on the couch reading the nightly news. The man looked up at him and he simply raised an eyebrow – his go ahead for whatever it was that Kouji intended to tell him. "There's someone I want you to meet."

"Who is it? A pretty girl at long last?" The man teased brightly, folding his paper and turning to get a better look at his son. Kouji was shaking his head though and he glanced back behind him – around a corner towards where Kousei could not see the person he was intended to meet.

"No…just…promise you won't freak or anything." Kouji muttered as he motioned for the person to step forwards into the light.

And there, before Kousei Minamoto's eyes…was his eldest child.

This moment was what declared the trouble that would follow.

While outwardly appearing calm and understanding, Kousei listened to the prefabricated excuse the boys had made up (for seriously, who would believe they met in the digital world of all places?). "We just happened to run into each other in the train station, you know?" Kouji explained lightly.

"How long have you known each other…?" The man asked slowly, eyeing his twin children who sat side-by-side on the couch as the man paced awkwardly in front of them.

"A week or so now…sir…" Kouichi piped up softly (lying through the skin of his teeth), feeling entirely uncomfortable with the situation.

"I met our mom a little while ago, and we figured it was only right if you got to meet Kouichi too…right?" Kouji didn't know it at the time, but it was those words that had damned them all to hell. For it didn't take long for Tomoko Kimura to come to the apartment and sit down with Kousei and Satomi Minamoto about their children…

And from there things changed almost every day.

Wild mood swings, threatening attitudes, violent behaviors, and erratic tendencies haunted Kouji's footsteps.

"He's going completely crazy man; I've never seen him like this." The younger twin informed one evening as he dedicated himself to defeating his brother in a game of Super Smash Brothers, while simultaneously devouring a bowl of chocolate ice-cream. It had taken them hours to convince Kousei to let Kouichi spend the night. Usually it was no problem to have a friend over, but now the man suddenly decided to use every cheap trick in the book until his wife, Satomi, finally put her foot down and said that it was fine. The attitude though, had seriously pissed off Kouji beyond all reasoning.

It is now, that something particular to Kouichi and Kouji should be explained. Ever since they met, they had been capable of feeling if the other person was there, of knowing if they were alright, if they were in need of anything they knew. Overtime, they theorized that it was because the digimon that they fought as, were twins as well. Light guided Kouji's movements where Kouichi was led by darkness. The two were the Yin to each other's Yang.

On Earth this bond only grew, and it helped them peer into each others soul. They stood and existed for one another, guarding and protecting their brother regardless of what was to come to pass. The subtle pain in Kouji's voice gave way to a strong worry in Kouichi's heart. Their bond only grew stronger.

"What do you mean?" Kouichi jumped into the air and hit down and B – his Kirby turned into a brick and landed directly on Kouji's character, Link's, head. The percentages were going up, and it was clear that multitasking was not the younger boy's strong suit. He glowered at the look of pure superiority that his brother was adopting.

"Yeah, yeah, keep it up…I can still kick your ass in real life, and I don't know…he's never screamed and stuff. I think I've been grounded maybe twice before? Now it's like every week!" Kouji moved Link and slashed outwards, but Kirby floated away completely unharmed. Desperately the younger twin chucked a bomb-bomb at the pink blob, but it caught it and chucked it straight back so fast that Kouji barely had time to register what happened before he was blasted off the screen. Kouichi was snickering behind a spoon full of vanilla.

"That makes…fourty wins and zero losses. You sure you don't want to stop now?" His teasing subsided for a moment. "You think we shouldn't spend time with each other any more…? At least not at your house…if he doesn't like-"

"That's just it though – and like hell you're getting away with a streak like that, just restart the game – he _loves _you. I mean, shit, he treats you better then me these days." Kouichi bit his lip for a moment as his fingers ghosted over the controller.

"Maybe we _should _take a break then…I mean, he's known you for longer he shouldn't treat you poorly because of me…"

The younger twin just scoffed. He opened his mouth to retort something when there was a knock at the door. His step-mother poked her head in. "Boys, its past your bed time and you know it! Go to bed this instant!" And with collective and identical moans they nodded and readied themselves for sleep.

In the digital world, there had been no beds and no comforters. There had been no duvets or pillows. There had only been the frigid cold and the group. Despite the fact they had been back for months they still couldn't stop the fact that it was far more comfortable (even now) to continue sleeping together.

With no romantic issues or feelings towards each other, they understood this simple matter of comfort and they extended it without asking. They had tried to sleep apart at first, but they had failed and simply found the only way to truly be alright with the situation was to go to sleep back to back.

Saying their goodnights, and laying down, they were comforted by the sound of their breathing and they fell into a dedicated slumber; unaware that this would be the last night that they would ever spend at home for nearly a year.

Sometime in the night Kouichi got up to got to the bathroom. He crawled over his brother who always insisted that the older twin slept closest to the wall, some form of over protective gesture Kouichi was certain. As usual; the younger boy woke up, when he was just about on the other side of him, and asked him what was wrong in his usual bleary morning voice. Kouichi soothed him into going back to sleep and when the boy was breathing softly he sighed in contentment before going to the bathroom down the hall.

He was on his way out and was rubbing the sleep out his eyes when he bumped into someone, his senses not as sharp as they usually are when he's awake. He blinked up at the person before him and an apology fell from his lips, but when he noticed he'd never seen the person before in his entire life he gasped and reality came sharply back into focus. The man turned to look at him and the boy opened his mouth to scream – Kouji would instantly wake up and know something was wrong and his senses _would _tell him what the problem was.

Before the sound could even grace past his lips though, the man smashed something hard on the side of his head and the scream fell silent on his lips as he fell to the side. Arms grabbed him and he was pulled to his feet. The boy was fading in and out of consciousness and he doubted he would manage to stay awake long enough to find out who the man was.

"Kouji…" he whispered. Their bond shook violently and he could feel the younger boy waking up. He never understood how his brother had grown so good at feeling their bond, but then again besides the basics he never understood his bond with his brother either. He heard the door right next to them open, Kouji gasped in surprise at the sight he saw. Kouichi's body was hanging lifelessly in the man's arms and the stranger stood before him, aiming a gun directly at his head.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" The boy asked as he took a step forward. His voice was more dangerous then Kouichi ever heard it sink. In his hand was his kendo sword that he'd always leaned against his door frame now it was out and he seemed perfectly ready to attack the man. Years of martial arts lessons and months in the digital world had trained Kouji to be a programmed warrior when he needed to be, and this was most certainly the time.

"Put the sword down kid." The man hissed as he shook Kouichi's limp frame. Kouji's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Put my _brother_ down creep." Kouji snapped back as he stayed perfectly still. He wasn't going to do something stupid, and screaming right now (though tempting) was very stupid. Especially with the gun in front of him.

"I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. We don't have to keep either of you alive. In fact, it'd be easier if we just killed you. So put the damn sword down or I _will _blow you _and _your brother's brains out."

"Don't shoot him and I'll put the sword down."

"Kid, you're really in no room for negotiation." The boy frowned at him heavily before slowly moving it from its position and placing it by the door frame once more. Before he could move the gun crashed down upon him and he fell to the ground in a heap. There was movement, and the man turned sharply, staring at the form of another man just down the hall. He was watching the scene with blank eyes, no emotion cast on them. "You knew the rules." The first man said simply, and with that, the second man turned and walked away. The only other witness was Kouichi, and as his blurry eyes slipped closed with his brother's name dying on his lips, the two were both carried out of the house.

It is here that our tale skips several hours and in this time, Satomi and Kousei seemingly slept blissfully onwards. They did not know what had transpired and they would not know until the morning when Satomi would walk into her son's bedroom and stare in confusion at the sight of the empty bed and the empty house that yielded no sighting of two boys who were so alike in appearance.

Her anguished screams of terror as she tried to find her son and her son's brother would not be heard for much time to come. Kousei's trembling hands would not wrap around his wife's body and they would not hold her until much later. Yet still, hours did pass, and in these hours our story's heroes were traversed a great distance.

They too slept onwards, initially uncertain of their fates and content to rest in unconscious as their bodies tried to work past the block that had been set upon them. It is as it was written…several hours passed before anyone woke up and realized the true trouble these boys were in.

Kouji groaned as he blinked his eyes rapidly. The sound of a plane's engines going startled him awake. His head hurt him worse then it ever had before, and that included all of the times in the digital world when he was busy being used as a ragdoll by Lucemon and being driven head first into the ground. He groaned and tried to move, but his body was stiff and it wasn't really responding. Turning his head to the sighed he gasped.

His brother was sitting about three meters away, his arms hanging up in the air and chained to the wall about three feet apart from each other. His head was bent awkwardly to his chest (ensuring a cramp later) and his body was limp and lazy.

"Kou-Kouichi." The younger twin tried to move towards his brother, only to find that his own wrists were tied to the wall. He frowned at them as though that would make them unlatch themselves, but in the end they stayed put. His arms were dead weight and heavy due to the limited to no blood circulation in them. He was far past the pins and needles stage and that irked him to no end. He tried to move his body closer to the boy anyway, but it didn't help. There as no way he was going to be able to reach his brother from where he was sitting. Groaning again he tried to pull himself to his feet.

It took him several tried but he made it eventually. His body was sore all over, and he attributed that to the awkward angle he'd woken up in. He doubted anyone had paid much attention to him when they chained him up. Likewise his brother was in a similar state of pain he was sure. Once more he tried to take his wrists from their holds, but once more he was denied. Groaning he opted to just get blood flowing in his arms again.

"Kouichi….Kouichi brother wake up." The boy in question groaned and looked at Kouji with confused eyes. He then looked around them in equal confusion. Slowly he made it to his feet and tugged uselessly at his chains.

"Kouji…what? Where are we?" He asked in total confusion.

"I don't know. I woke up like this." The plane shook and both boys gasped as they fell to their knees in surprise.

"Ah yes…I did warn you about the turbulence, but…you _were_ unconscious at the time." The twins looked up in shock at the man who had suddenly appeared before them.

"Who are you? Where are you taking us?" Kouji snapped angrily as he glared at the man. He recognized him easily enough as the one who had been there when Kouichi and him had been kidnapped. His head was killing him and he had a good idea as to how he'd been overcome the night previously.

"You have no reason to know my name. As to where I'm taking you, now why the hell would I tell you that?" The man laughed at them as he leaned against the wall in front of them. The boys took a better look around them quickly as to make sure no other surprises jumped out at them. They were in the cargo hold of what looked to be a regular plane. No one else was down there besides the man in front of them and of course them themselves. There were boxes and storage bins all around them and they were nestled in the back, far away from the rest of the stairwell to the passengers' cabins.

"Fuck that man, you fucking kidnapped-"

"Kouji…" Kouichi whispered softly, and instantly the younger boy fell silent. The man glanced at Kouichi and paused for a while before looking back at Kouji.

"When we get to Head Quarters you're going to have to be dealt with it seems."

"Head Quarters? What are you some kind of criminal organization?" At the man's silence Kouji cursed. He hadn't meant to hit the nail on the head. In fact, he'd hoped he'd been wrong. Kouichi too had been hoping that his insight had failed him. It looked like neither of them was that lucky. Closing his eyes Kouji counted to ten before letting out the breath he'd been holding.

Nobody spoke for the rest of the trip. The man stayed watch over them and every once and a while shifted positions, but other then that he stayed perfectly in place where he'd always been. The plane slowly began its landing process, and the man sat down to keep from falling over. He looked at the boys intently who were keeping eye contact with each other – some freaky twin thing he was certain. After watching the boys for nearly twenty minutes he could tell that the twins were well versed in reading each other's thoughts or emotions.

He sighed as the plane came to a complete stop. The boys would do well in the organization, that's for sure. Their father's debt would be paid, and due to their bond they'd be the perfect tools of destruction. Still, it was never fun to work with kids, it reminded him to much of a time when he himself worked for the organization at their age. It was not going to be a fun ride for them, that was for sure. Especially if they talked back the way they loved to do.

He moved towards Kouichi first, well aware that of the two of them Kouji was probably the more dangerous. He unlocked one of the boy's wrists and then moved to the other. The teen's arms fell to his side and he brought his hands to his forearms to try to rub feeling back into them. The man grabbed the boy by the scruff of his neck and pulled him to his feet. The teenager yelped in surprise and when the cool point of a gun pressed to his neck he stayed firmly still.

"Listen to me Minamoto. You're brother's life depends on your cooperation you understand?" The boy nodded slowly. "When I unchain you, you will bind your wrists together with the hand cuffs that are on that box there." There were two sets actually; one beside the other, resting on the box peacefully as though they'd been undisturbed the whole trip. "You will then cuff your brother's wrists. Got that?" The boy nodded again, his eyes very calculating. "One step in the wrong direction, one threat I see, one even inkling to a motion out of what I've told you to do, and you get to see what it looks like for your head to be shot off. God _that_?" Again the boy nodded. The man moved forward and removed the chains.

Kouji rubbed his wrists absentmindedly before he approached the box. His fingers reached out and they traced over the metal that was shimmering from the restraints. He bit his lip, wondering if they really would shoot them. What would be the point of kidnapping them if they were just going to be shot? It wasn't worth the risk though.

His fingers tightened around one of the links and it slipped open in his palm. His hands squeezed the bracelet around his thin wrists, and he awkwardly did the other one. Then he moved to grab the second pair, when their kidnapper's voice tightened from behind him. It was a barking order and it made him pause for just a moment. "Tighter." And, he listened without thought.

The teen then moved to his brother and put the second pair on his him. Still the twins maintained eye contact and it was clear they were talking about something _again._ The man nodded and with a clip of a smaller chain, linked the brother's together. He clipped another chain to the first and held onto this one. Finally he motioned with his gun.

"You're walking that way." And as he spoke the plane's cargo entrance opened and another man stood there. This one was obviously higher in stature. His clothes were sharp and finely tuned out. He looked better then the scruffy man that stood behind them that was for sure. He laughed at them and moved closer to the twins, taking each of the boy's faces in his hands.

"So these must be Kousei's sons." Again the boys were silent but their eyes made contact and their captor frowned. He wondered just how much they could communicate with each other. It was obvious that they were good at picking up various signals and the like that the other gave visually. They just seemed capable of reading one another, and it was slightly disconcerting. "It's been so long hmm, Kouji?" The younger twin frowned; Kouichi glanced at him in confusion.

"You know him?"

"We've never met." The man before them laughed heartily, his hands reaching out to touch them.

"Of course…well…you're pretty little mites aren't aren't?" Kouichi's head was shaken and a growl escaped Kouji before his older brother could glare at him to suppress it. "Haha! Protective of him are you lad? That's a good boy." His hair was stroked and Kouji bit back another growl. It was clear his distaste for this old man stemmed much deeper then it did for his kidnapper. "If you're good…maybe I'll give you a treat." The man's thumb pressed on Kouji's mouth and the boy gave him a dumbstruck look. This time it was Kouichi who made the first move.

"Sir, what is it you want from us?" He asked; his tone deadly. The man holding their chains held back the shiver, he wondered faintly why he thought Kouji was the more dangerous one of the two, for it far surpassed his brother's tone from yesterday. The man looked at the boy calculatingly. He then removed his hand from Kouji's face and stared at them both equally.

"You two are perfect." With that he turned on his heel and left the cargo bay shouting out one last thing. "I want them given to me after they've been…Re-Educated. I believe that level six is appropriate." The man stiffened at the apparent boss of the operation's words. He was right. The boys were in for a rough ride.

He walked them towards a large black van that was parked not to far away from the plane. They were walked inside of it and stared in wonder at the interior. From the outside it looked just like a regular work van. Something that you'd see a plumber or electrician use, but the interior made all thoughts of that disappear very quickly. The walls were lined with high tech equipment and there was a desk protruding out from one of the sides that held a computer. Most of the van's left over space had boxes of concealed items in it.

The boys were pushed to the floor, their chains tying them tightly to it to keep them from moving. The man stepped over them and sat at the chair in front of the computer and knocked once on the back of the wall that separated them and the drivers. The van instantly sprang to life and sped away.

"Kouichi." Kouji thought desperately. The man had purposely made the brothers face in opposite directions, and he was staring down at them with and amused look in his eye. Still, even if the brothers didn't have eye contact they could always read each other. Kouji leaned onto his brother's back – a simple way of showing that he was there and yet it looked as innocent as just shifting position. Kouichi leaned back into him.

"I'm here." Kouichi meant and silence filled their minds. It was only when the older twin thought heavily on what he'd seen at the airport did Kouji shift in acknowledgement. In his own mind he had seen the same. It was abandoned mostly, certainly a private air field. There was nothing really _to _see, and yet all the same it was quite clear that wherever they were it was certainly farther north. The terrain was completely different from how it was in Shibuya, it was far more isolated and far more quiet. That meant somewhere far away from Tokyo.

"Hokkaido." Kouji felt the word through their bond the same moment he'd thought it. They had to have been some where in Hokkaido. In front of them the man could not help but stare in surprise as the twin looks of acknowledgement flashed across both the boy's eyes. He wondered faintly if they had figured something out and then decided he truly did want to test the limits to their _abilities _as far as he could push them. If he pained one in another room…would the other feel it? It was a sick and twisted thought, but the curiosity filled him regardless.

The van stopped and the boys were pushed to their feet and once more were linked together before they were forced to walk out of the van. Again the man watched intently as the boy's took in their surroundings. The looks of understanding flashed across their faces and he knew instantly that he'd been right. Somehow the boys had figured out where they'd been taken, interesting.

They walked forwards into an ancient shrine before passing through some expensive looking rooms and eventually down a flight of stairs. The twins looked at each other for a moment and couldn't help but feel slightly out of place despite the severity of the situation. Everyone else in the Shrine was wearing traditional clothing and yet they were still in their pajamas from the night before. Then again, their captor didn't have on any traditional clothing and was in fact standing quite proudly in his jeans, white shirt, and black vest and finger-less gloves. They gave him a scathing look and once more he wondered just what they were thinking.

They finally opened a door that looked akin to a basement and they were kicked down the stairs with little thought. The underground was slightly different then the Shrine above. The hall ways were pristine and tiled and looked to have been made not two years ago. They walked through the halls in a state of awe, trying to comprehend what exactly they were looking at. Finally they came to a stop at a large door and the man tapped in some numbers in a key pad before opening it. Kouji let his eye slide to the key pad as the man typed it in and then glanced back to his brother without being caught snooping.

They walked inside and for the second time were startled at the change. A prison? It looked like a prison. There were bars…cages…along the walls that held countless children and adults in them. They were walked down to the last cell in the row and the door to the cell opened. Both were rather forcefully pushed in and then the cell door closed behind them. Glancing back they watched as the man waved goodbye and walked off without another word.

"We're somewhere in Hokkaido…my guess would be Wakkanai..."

"It makes the most sense."

Kouichi shifted slightly, his eyes trailing around their cell and then back towards the hall. His body froze where it sat, as his eyes were drawn to a rather pale faced female who was standing in the darkness – watching them. Her hair was black and braided. Her eyes were dark and sunken into her skull. The skin itself was pale and yet carried a sickly yellow hint to it that made her look all the more spooky as she all but hovered in the shadows.

Kouji looked up and followed his brother's gaze, frowning too as he saw the girl. She couldn't have been much older then them, but the self assured way she was carrying herself made it hard to guess her age. Annoyance flitted across his face, and he grit his teeth as he stared at her.

"What do _you _want?" He hissed towards her. She didn't react in the least, and she didn't say anything. She just hovered and watched as she stared at them. Movement behind her made her glance towards the entrance to the hall where the man from earlier was approaching.

"Haruka. You're in my way." The girl looked up at the man from before and glared at him intently.

"So it's you then." She said simply as started to retreat. "They sent _you_ to watch them?" Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the man up and down. "Useless." Was all she said as she walked away. The boys stared after her in confusion.

"Haruka is not someone you should trifle with kid." The door opened and the man threw clothes at them. There were six pairs of clothes. The twins easily noticed the attire as well. Jeans, black vest, white shirt, black finger-less gloves seemed popular.

"What are these, uniforms?" Kouji asked, clearly annoyed.

"You gonna argue with me every time we're in the same room together you brat?" The man's tone was dangerous and he slammed the door closed behind him as Kouji's temper snapped.

"You fucking kidnapped us! I want to know what the hell is going on here."

"Kouji-" Kouichi's hand went to his brother's sleeve.

"Why did you break into my house? Why did you take us to Gods-knows-where?" Kouji moved closer to the bars and slammed his hands on them as he tried to shake them violently. "What the hell do you want from us?" The man stood there through it all and when the boy was finished with his rant he removed his gun from its holder and aimed it straight at Kouji's head. The boy froze where he stood and Kouichi screamed something from behind him. "You first brat." And with that the door opened again and while Kouji was frozen in front of the gun, he was pulled from the cell and shoved down the hall. The door locked with a clang behind him and Kouichi was left screaming for his brother as they walked away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Windstar: This is the second installment. Thank you to my one reviewer, I appreciate the come back from On A Winter's Day, and hope you find this to be a suitable rewrite. **

**Chapter Two: **

_Date: + Seventeen Days_

_Time: 0317_

_Author: Kouji Kohaku_

_This is all Kibo's idea. Kouichi cottoned to it right away I suppose, he's been writing in that journal quite a bit over the past few days, and I guess it's good for him. Kibo told me I didn't have to do this if I didn't want to, but I'm going fucking stir crazy and I suppose I might as well jump on the bandwagon before I lose my mind again. _

_We're somewhere in Wyoming right now, the mountains are nice I guess, and we've seem some cool wildlife…_

_Fuck this. Kouichi can do the God-damn writing, this is bull shit. _

**Entry Two: **

**Author: Kibo**

**Sources: Takuya Kanbara, Tomoki Himi, Izumi Orimoto, Junpei Shibayama, Kouji Kohaku, Kouichi Kohaku**

Takuya Kanbara attended school like any other child. He went when he was supposed too, he played soccer more then he should have, and he procrastinated on his homework more then was appropriate. In the end, he was a perfectly normal person. Aside from being a champion of the digital world and all of that fun stuff, Takuya was relatively ordinary and he liked it like that.

When he attended school for the first day after they had returned home from their trip to the Digital World, Takuya had been annoyed and bothered and under the impression that life was dull. He hadn't thought about math or history or foreign languages for months and he truly wanted nothing to do with it now.

The only thing that made everything a wee bit brighter is that over time, all of the duly dubbed "Digidestined" were capable of finding one another. Kouji and Izumi attended the same school as he did, and he just had never noticed them before. Junpei and Kouichi weren't too far away in a neighboring district, and Tomoki was a few years younger so he wasn't even in the same building. Still, they managed a schedule and they saw each other every day after school.

Takuya had never before seen grades as poor as his, let alone worse. Yet somehow, against all odds – Kouji beat him hands down. "You realize that you said two plus two equals five, right?" Takuya had asked him once as they looked over their math scores one day. The vivid red marks all over the paper and the highly pronounced 'zero' at the top was hard to miss, and the older boy just had to goggle at the page in shock.

Kouji swiped the page away from him and shoved it into his bag, but the dark blush on his face and the way he shifted uncomfortably made it clear that he was more then a little embarrassed. He had mumbled something then, agitation rising. "I made a mistake alright?" The boy groused as they made their way towards Shibuya station where they always went to meet up with the rest of their friends.

"Mistake? _Mistake? _Kouji, you can't even add properly!"

"Yes I can, I know exactly how to add right, I just…don't do well on tests."

"Two plus two is an easy equation, Kouji." The boy scowled, glaring at him ruthlessly.

"It's none of your business anyway." They had made it to the station by then, and maneuvered over towards the elevator to wait for the others. They didn't have to hold out too long though, Kouichi and Junpei were on their way over, Tomoki bouncing ahead in front of them. Izumi showed up not too long after that. "Where are we going?" Kouji mumbled as he smiled towards his brother.

Kouichi shrugged. "It's up to you guys, I don't have to be home until later on…"

"I say the library; this is going to take a group effort." Takuya announced brightly as he once more snatched Kouji's brief case and opened it so he could pull out the test. The younger boy dove for him, intent on throwing him down the staircase if he didn't cease and desist like a normal person. The others seemed mildly surprised at the scene, but didn't step in to join either side. They just watched in confusion until finally Takuya managed to tug the test free and shove it into Kouichi's chest.

"You're like, a straight A student right? You get top marks on everything! So how come your brother's such a complete idiot?" Kouji punched out, knocking the brunette to the ground in true annoyance.

"You're such an ass hole Takuya!" Only no one was listening, they were staring at the zero that was still shimmering in bright red ink. Kouichi had a look of bemused puzzlement on his face, not quite understanding.

"You feeling alright?" He had asked, looking honestly concerned as he met his twin's eyes.

"I'm _fine_. I just don't like math." Kouji tugged the paper free from his brother's hands and retrieved his bag. "I'm going home, screw you all." He marched off in honest annoyance, incapable of even thinking about looking at his friends. Kouichi stared after him for a long while, before waving goodbye to the others and following him home.

They wouldn't know it yet, but this would be the last time that their group would be together many long years.

They went their separate ways, Takuya mumbling in annoyance and kicking his feet while the others told him that he really messed up there. It was annoying and frustrating, but whatever. Kouji did need help in school, and sure Takuya wasn't the best role model, but at least he knew how to add!

That night, Takuya ate dinner with his family like nothing odd had happened. He crawled into bed and slept blissfully with nothing to distract him and nothing to make him think of the danger that was circling around his friends.

The phone rang sharply at 0700. He groaned and sat up, looking at it blearily. His fingers fell onto it and he groggily lifted it up so that it was pressed against his ear. "Hello…?"

"T-Takuya?" Sleep started to leave him as he heard the desperate voice on the other line. He barely recognized it, but he did know who it was.

"Yeah?"

"Is…Is Kouji or K-Kouichi…are they at your house?" He frowned, why on earth would Satomi Minamoto want to know that?

"Uhh, no. They ditched early on last night, I thought they were heading over to your place." He told her honestly, not understanding the cause of her concern.

"They did…they were…only…they're gone. They're gone and we can't find them. Do you know where they might have gone? Please Takuya?" The panic was genuine, and the concern was pure, and yet Takuya could not honestly answer her. His mind just went numb and blank. For several minutes after the conversation had ended with him saying he didn't know, but he would call the others and ask them for her. As he listened to the dial tone, he sat in bed in shock. He kept running over the events of the previous day in his head. He couldn't work out what went wrong, or if there was any insinuation that they would be going anywhere. He honestly had no idea where they could be.

Takuya called up Izumi, his heart pounding violently in his chest as he heard the trill ringing. She answered in annoyance asking him if he knew what time it was, and he quickly went over what had just occurred. Izumi didn't know anything either. Tomoki and Junpei were just as oblivious.

Something was wrong.

Takuya threw himself out of bed, it was now 0834, he raced down the hall and skidded into the kitchen where his mother and father were preparing the morning time meal. "Dad, Kouji and Kouichi are missing. They just vanished from their beds last night!"

Hiroaki Kanbara, age thirty seven, and detective for five years in Shibuya's Serious Crimes Unit, had seen more then his fair share of things in his day. The worst though, the worst memory that he could recall up to this date though…was the sight of his son running into that kitchen and announcing that two boys that he knew had vanished without a trace.

He could recall later how he laughed it off and saying that it's just a kid thing, and that the twins would show up. He could recall how Takuya ran from the apartment with only his cell phone and a crazed look in his eyes. He could recall then, how for weeks they would search tirelessly for the twins.

He would then recall, the brutal and honest truth, which they all tried to ignore: Kouichi Kimura and Kouji Minamoto, had been kidnapped from their home sometime between the hours of 2300 and 0300 on November the Fifth 2006. They were fourteen years of age.

* * *

><p>At 1300, only six hours after the phone call made to Takuya had been completed and the brunette child ran out into the street to try to search for the twins, things were not looking up for the boys. Kouichi was crouched in his cell, his knees drawn up to his chest and his head bent between them. He would admit later to have cried as he sat there waiting for news about his brother.<p>

The dark walls and the cold interior of the room was hard to stomach, and he desperately wanted to know about the well being of his other half. The darkness that he was used to feeling comfort from was doing nothing to support him through this time of need. All he could think of were…Haruka's…eyes as she stared at them with such a blank look.

He wanted to know if his brother was safe, he wanted to know if he was going to be alright, and clearly, he wasn't going to get answers any time soon.

Kouji, at that moment, was staring defiantly into the man's eyes as he looked at him sternly. His hands had been chained to the ceiling above him and he was thrashing angrily trying to escape. He knew that he wouldn't get anywhere, and from what Kouichi was shouting at him in his mind he also knew that his brother was going to be a handful when he saw him next. He could actually feel his brother shaking him angrily and asking him why he was being such and idiot.

The man stepped up to Kouji and looked him dead in the eye. They spent a few moments glaring at each other and then and only then did the man say the only once of compassion that he was going to give Kouji for the rest of their time together.

"This is going to hurt. I wouldn't try resisting that much." Before Kouji could question that he felt the sharp sting of a whip coming down on him from behind. He gasped in surprise and couldn't hold back the yelp that was forced out of him. He screamed on the second lash as well, but by the third his anger had solidified and he glared ruthlessly into the eyes of his kidnapper. He was not the one behind the whipping, but he didn't care. He wanted to stare into the eyes of this man and let him know just how much he hated him. Twelve lashes later he was still staring into the man's eyes. "Stop." The man said suddenly. "This isn't going to work."

"What?" The voice was unfamiliar, but as time went on, Kouji would know it well.

"He is determined to be uncooperative. Even if we flay him alive he will not bend to our will." The man left the room, leaving him hanging there uselessly.

He walked down the halls back to the prison where Kouichi was being kept. He pressed the numbers on the lock and then down the corridor to the cell where the irate twin was. It was not all that surprising when he saw the boy. Tears were streaking down his face and he looked like he had been the one beaten half to death and not his brother. He frowned slightly at the sight, but was more then a little amused when the boy was suddenly in his face showing the flare that was hidden mostly behind his brother.

"Where is he?" He shouted angrily. "Where's my brother? I want to see him." The man nodded and unlocked the door before throwing him out into the hall. He didn't need to force him at all; the boy would have run ahead of him if it would have gotten him there faster. He wondered if their bond could help them locate each other. If it could, it looked like the boy sure wasn't going to show him that.

He opened the door to the torture chamber where Kouji still hug by his wrists. The moment the older boy ran in though, Kouji's still form sprang to life. Anger and fear filled the boy's eyes as Kouichi threw himself to his brother's side.

"Kouji!" The older twin's hands went to the boy's face and their eyes met once again. For a moment they had a perfect conversation just like that, and the unchained boy looked at his brother's back. Hate coursed through the room so powerful that even their captor could feel it. He watched as the older boy turned his back on his brother and looked straight at him. His meaning was clear. He was going to kill them.

"What. The. Hell. Did. You. Do." His voice was so deadly that again he was startled. He never did get used to the way they flip flopped. One moment Kouji would be the threatening one and Kouichi the meek one, the next Kouichi was definitely the more terrifying.

"I'm going to make everything very clear to you boys." The man stepped forward and pulled roughly on Kouji's pony tail that by now was little more then a furious tangle of knots. Kouichi looked ready to kill him right then and there. "If either of you fucks up. If either of you goes and talks out of turn, or pisses on the wrong person's boots…the _other _is the one who gets the punishment." Kouji's eyes widened considerably. "Now that that's established. It's only fair that we start from scratch. Seeing as how your brother just received fifteen lashes…it makes sense that the kid gets thirty. After all, he messed up and took your punishment for you…we can't have that now can we?" Before the young boy could move, Kouichi was slammed heavily against a desk that was placed in the center of the room. He gasped in pain as the desk knocked the wind out of him and his arms were held down. The boy glanced around in pure terror and Kouji was shouting for them to stop.

"Stop! Please! I'll do whatever you say! Please! I'm sorry! I won't do it again! Please!" The man looked up at him slightly with pity in his eyes but it disappeared the moment the whip landed heavily against Kouichi's back. The boy screamed, but not nearly as loud as Kouji who was cursing insanities trying to get them off of his brother.

"Keep it up and I'll make it forty five." The man said coldly. Kouji fell silent. His eyes glaring heavily at the man.

The point was made though, and when everything was over, and they both had suffered for daring to talk back and argue, they were thrown into that damnable cell once more.

Kouji would explain the next few moments through a haze as he recollected. He wrapped his unconscious brother's back with the few bandages that their captor had given him. He used the drinking water they had received as a way to clean the majority of them, and then he set to just binding what he could.

In a typical and a rather selfless act, Kouji used all of their supplies on his brother. He did not know, nor would he ever truly know, what it was to think for himself. He was an entirely selfless person, and perhaps that was his greatest fault. His inability to think of himself and only think of others led him to much pain and troubles over the years.

For in truth, despite Takuya and his friends' desperate efforts, they would not see either brother again until they were nineteen years of age. For five long and pain filled years these dear friends would be separated. Even at the time of this story's completion they are not together.

Five years of struggling is bound to change any man, let alone children who had barely been into their sixth year of elementary school. By some divine prank, these children were taken away from their families after they had returned from the Digital World and they were bound to each other by the love that they bore for one another.

Kouji's undying love for his dearest companion that he'd ever had would lead him astray countless times. This was not the first beating that he would ever receive. This was simply the first of many occurrences that would change this child who had long since been considered a warrior of light.

The Yin to his brother's Yang, and yet such a burden that is.

The sunlight that was Kouji was the grace and gentleness that was generally hidden as he kept up his usually gruff exterior. It was mostly an act though, and despite his foul mouth and his atrocious habits at times, it was (and always has been) Kouji who was the self sacrificing fool that would always be tied to his brother's side.

Kouichi was the shadows and the background and he easily let his brother's 'leader personality' head through everything and take the spot light. Kouichi didn't necessarily mind it when people turned to him for advice or answers, but at the same time he preferred to do things in solitary and Kouji was the only person that he'd ever truly wanted to spend his time with.

True to the old Chinese beliefs, they were inseparable from the moment that they were aware of each other's presence. Where one went, the other invariably followed. There was nothing except their deep friendship and their constant compassion and love for each other.

Perhaps because it has been said how close they are, it is imperative for it to be said that they were not _in _love with each other. Do not confuse the two. They are similar but they are not the same. It has been said that "_Sanskrit_ has ninety-six _words for love_; ancient Persian has eighty, Greek three, and English only one."

The caring and the emotions that are spoken here in this text cannot justify truly what exists between them. It is an intense, burning, passionate and completely platonic love. It is the love that can only be shared after trials and tribulations that are jointly overcome. Kouichi had formerly risked his life to save Kouji from Lucemon. That sacrifice is one that cannot be ever ignored – no matter what.

In a word, Kouji was grateful. Grateful; that Kouichi had saved his life nearly at the cost of his own. Grateful that at long last there was someone there who cared for him just the way he was with no obligations or attachments.

Perhaps it is important to now mention that Kouji's life as a child was very different from that of an ordinary child. Perhaps it is important to mention that memories of times long past are things that were better left forgotten and that the churning of those thoughts released an outcrop of pain and sadness that would never be capable of finding refuge in any place other then the shattered darkness of his light ridden soul.

The first memory that Kouji Minamoto ever had was of being in a hospital bed. He could not recall anything that had happened prior to that moment. His arm was broken in three places and he had apparently cracked his cheek bone. He was seven at the time. His father explained that he had fallen out of a tree he'd been climbing.

He didn't remember it.

He could only remember vague emotions and feelings towards things. His mother for instance. When he asked about her, Kousei told him she was dead and that was that. He didn't argue it and yet he couldn't feel satisfied. Perhaps the vague imprint of memories he couldn't quite reach had gripped his heart.

Kousei treated him as a burden most of the time, and he found himself doing his own thing more often then not. He accepted the fact that he was slower at things then what was the standard, so much was expected of him and yet he could barely put things together.

He didn't know how to tie his shoes and he barely was capable of managing simple tasks. Kousei worked all hours of the day, and hired a woman to raise his son. It was the first time that Kouji ever met his future step-mother.

Satomi was a good person, and he supposed that she was alright. However, sometimes he felt like a patient more then anything else. She never treated him like an idiot, and he appreciated it, however he always wanted to find something more, something that was missing.

It is that something, that second half, and that which has long since felt missing to him since he woke up in that hospital bed; which he found in a life with Kouichi and his mother, Tomoko. Until that point he had always lived a half life, a life that he never felt was his own.

That was the love that he had for his brother, and that was why he was would always sacrifice himself in an attempt to protect and save his brother.

So Kouji tended and cared for that brother of his, that brother who too and lived a life that was hard and filled with turmoil. Kouji's light was accumulated because of the fact that he could not recall any darkness, and Kouichi's darkness likewise was accumulated because of the fact that he could not recall any light.

For while Kouji lived a life that was filled with blank memories and a failure of a relationship with his father, Kouichi lived a life of constant worry and fear for the two people who were raising him despite their economic turmoil.

Ever since _he _could remember, he had been caring for his sickly grandmother and his over-tired mother. They worked three jobs a piece; their wages were minimum at best. Kouichi was required to care for the house and to tend to them when their illnesses overcame them.

There was no such thing as hope in that life. There was only suffering and darkness and more suffering. When his grandmother finally was on her last leg their house fell apart because there was only one income and everything went to support her in the hospital.

Then came the day, on her death bed, where she told an emotionally torn apart ten year old boy that he had a twin brother who lived in Shibuya. A twin brother and a father that were out there somewhere, and his mother and father had promised not to tell anyone. They'd promised to keep the boys separate.

_Why?_ Kouji had asked his grandmother.

_Why?_ Kouichi had asked his brother.

The lies were everywhere.

One lie specifically stated that it was simply for the best of everyone. How it was the fact that it wasn't fair to one parent versus another to have both children.

The truth was much more sinister.

The truth was much darker.

This truth, however, is to be discussed later.

At that moment, with the blood drying on their backs and their friends frantically searching the city in an attempt to locate the twins, the boys remained unknowing towards what had led them into this predicament.

Kouji refused to fall asleep as his brother rested. He kept his blood shot eyes locked on the cell hallway that led to their cell. They were alone for now, and his arms were trapped around his brother's body. They would never be separated as long as he dared to be this boy's shield and as long as Kouichi needed someone to light his way in the dark.

Still, despite the massive light that had always surrounded Kouji's mind, despite the countless times he'd never had a thought in his head and it was okay, just on the edges…just on the outskirts…shadows were leaking in, and even if he knew they were there…he wouldn't know how to stop them.

* * *

><p>Izumi Orimoto was tall, blonde, and Italian. She sang in the school choir and she auditioned for the plays when they came through. In the past no one would have considered that she would have had the will to do something of the like, but after her experiences in the Digital World it seemed as though she honestly was willing to try to do things with those around her.<p>

On most days she enjoyed talking with her new girl friends and hanging out with the 'guys' after school. They'd all meet at the station and then hurry off to some place fun and spend the rest of the evening doing homework and goofing off.

Now though, she wasn't doing any of that.

At that moment, she was standing in front of the nineteenth posting board that she'd come across that day. With one spot available, she reached up and placed the paper she was holding in one hand on it. Then she took a stapler with the other hand and she connected the page permanently to the board.

It was a photograph, or rather: an eleven by twelve piece of recycled paper with a photograph printed on it.

The picture was taken just a few days after they had returned from their Digital Experience. Kouichi was in the hospital still, and they had come to visit him while his mother was at work. The twins were arguing about something when they had first walked through the door, but whatever it was seemed to have settled onto the back burner in a few short minutes.

An impromptu version of "Win, Loose, or Draw!" started up somehow and it was the "shorts" versus the "talls."

"Kouichi, Izumi, and Tomoki on one team; Kouji, and Junpei are on mine!" Takuya had announced as he pulled a white board and a marker out of his pocket.

"Why do you get to make up the teams?"

"Fair's fair Izumi, you three are the shortest!" Takuya was grinning madly as he grabbed his teammates excitedly. The twin trapped under his right arm scowled and attempted to pull away, but failed at his half hearted attempt.

"Kouji and Kouichi are the same height!" Tomoki complained, frowning at the much taller members of their party.

"Nah, Kouji's always been a little bigger."

"Yeah, with his bandana sticking up off his head!" The only girl hissed, "And I'm taller then Junpei!" She motioned to the clear height difference, and Takuya sighed, he couldn't deny that.

"Fine; Kouichi, Tomoki, and Junpei against _Izumi, _Kouji and me."

"I don't want to be on your team!" Izumi shouted, and the unofficial team leader crossed his arms over his chest.

"Well then why're you complaining?"

"Maybe Kouji should be on our team!"

"Then _we _get Kouichi."

"No dice." She snapped angrily. Both of them were glaring at each other in annoyance and the others could only watch as they bickered back and forth.

"What's the big deal about who's on who's team anyway?" Tomoki asked as he looked at the others.

"Because the twins can't be together, if they are they're going to just tell each other the answers!" The oldest of the group told him .

"We're not psychic Takuya." The boys replied in unison, and disproving their statement the moment it was heard. Everyone ignored their attempt to calm things down, and in the end the twins really did end up on different teams.

They played the Pictionary knock off for hours, and Izumi took photos of them all while they did so.

The one that was on the page she'd hung up now, was of the twins both smiling at the camera – a rare shot of Kouji to be sure. They looked so happy then…how could things have gotten so tragically wrong?

She turned and started walking away, heart heavy with thoughts of her friends that had completely vanished into the night. It had been two weeks and no one had seen or heard from them. The police had dusted the place for fingerprints, but found nothing. The front door had no signs of being picked, and none of the windows were broken.

Suspicion fell immediately on the parents who couldn't explain how the door came to be unlocked. Things from there rapidly fell from a kidnapping situation; to a runaway case. There was no sign of anyone else being in that house that night. Clearly the boys had just up and left. There were discussions of an argument…and who would kidnap two teenage boys from their beds in the middle of the night without anyone realizing it?

Despite how Izumi and the others begged and pleaded, no one believed them. Which is why it was them, the children who had returned to their homes thinking all danger had passed and they were safe, who were putting the fliers around the streets of Shibuya and beyond all asking and pleading for any information on the twins.

So far, after two weeks…no one had responded.

No one knew where the boys were.

The shadows were growing.


	3. Chapter 3

**Windstar: **Thank you very much to my return readers, I really appreciate it. Once again, I apologize for the delay in uploading this story. I hope the improvements and edits continue to meet your satisfaction.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, its affiliates, or its parent. This is a non profit fan based entry only. **

**Chapter Three:**

_Date: Unimportant_

_Time: 1200_

_Author: Kouichi Kohaku_

_When we first met Kibo's wife, she reminded me of mom, and yet she didn't. Her name was Hikari, Light, and somehow that simple fact reminded me of Kouji too; or at least, the Kouji that I knew from years before. She was all light and bubbles and gentle and kind and I knew that she was a good person without someone needing to tell me it was so._

_Kouji took to her like a fish to water. There were times when I would see her just hold his head to her chest as she gently rocked him and told him that everything would be better in time. He probably never will get better. He probably never will heal. As much as it pains me to say this, we're growing apart and it will never be fixed. _

_Like a shattered mirror, the pieces could be put back together but the flaws were still going to be there. Kouji and I? We will never be the friends we were in the past. We could never be. We're too different now. Kouji is too damaged, and I'm too broken. My jagged piece isn't fitting next to his smashed edges. Our mirror is the most imperfect image of ourselves that it could be. _

_His memory has deteriorated even worse then before. Hikari gave him a notebook to write things down in so he won't forget them. _

_Sometimes I wonder how he can't remember the simplest things, and I am filled with such rage and annoyance…_annoyance_…at something so foolish. Then I'm consumed with pity and find myself incapable of willing conversation between us. _

_Our parting is probably my fault. He attempts to speak with me, but he cannot even recall the simplest parts of our discussions to one another. My patience has grown so unbearably thin, and all I want is for everything to go back to the way that it was. Only his voice has changed so much, and his memory is so hole-y that Swiss cheese has more substance. _

_I suppose at this point in time I can't help but wonder, if I made the right choice. Did I choose right? Did I do the right thing? _

_I killed a man. I killed a man who was strangling Kouji. His hands were gripped around my brother's throat. My brother's eyes were rolling back in his head as his face turned beat red. He had stopped struggling, he was dying. The man was screaming and shouting and after four warning shots he still refused to stop strangling my brother, and so I killed him. I killed him and everything is different. _

_I've killed so many people over the past few years. I've killed so many many people…I can't even remember how many faces I've buried. The blood stains will never fade, not even with the strongest soap and the harshest brush. They will remain on my hands forever. _

_So why is it…that the only person I ever killed in the defense of another being…why is it that it is _that _person is the one that I feel guilty for killing? _

_Why is it that it is _that _person that has destroyed the relationship I had with my brother? _

_Why is it that Kouji can't even stand to look at me, because all he sees…is that bastard's murderer?_

**Entry Three: **

**Author: Kibo**

**Sources: Tomoko Kimura, Satomi Rito, Kouji Kohaku, Kouichi Kohaku**

The hardest part about not knowing; was that they didn't know if the boys were dead. Tomoko Kimura returned home to an empty house every day. Her son wasn't there to greet her, or offer her a cup of tea. There was no dinner or smiling faces. There was no laughter or a house filled with excited children and happy chortles. As far as she knew, her son was gone forever.

After three weeks of nothing, she couldn't help but feel her heart breaking. She sat in her son's room. His books were all lined up on the shelf, and there was paperwork on his desk. Her fingers trailed through the essays and the graded reports that he'd done for school. There was a list of plans that he was going to do in the future.

Appointments with friends and figuring how much money it would be to take the train to visit them all. Tomoko trailed her fingers over these articles, her memories drifting to times when she could see him coming to her and telling her about the friends he'd made.

She remembered in those moments as she sat on his neatly made bed, when she had first met her youngest son after all the years they'd spent apart. She hadn't known what to expect. She hadn't known what it was that she was supposed to say.

They'd done it so beautifully. Kouichi took her for a walk in the park. He was so happy and secretive about the whole experience. They'd left the house and just made their way towards the grassy surroundings that had always been a source of comfort towards the woman.

They didn't talk about much, but it was a satisfying walk to say the least. They hadn't gone on one in so long…with her mother's death there just hadn't been enough time to do anything of the sort. They were far to busy with organizing and downsizing to a much smaller home. She couldn't afford their house any longer.

"Mother…stay here for a moment, I want to show you something…I just have to go get it." He had said so sweetly. He was smiling at her, and she nodded and let him lead her to a bench to wait. She sat down and looked at the trees around her.

The wind was blowing gently and the birds were singing so fondly. She truly enjoyed days like these. It was rare for her to even have a moment off, and now that she was free all day this was exactly how she wanted to spend it. Quality time with her son was the only thing that made her truly happy back then.

Ever since his father had left…things had just been so difficult. There was nothing that could be done about it now though. Kouichi was such a kind hearted child, and he truly helped out more then anyone could have ever expected him to.

"M-mother…" She looked up and stared at her son in confusion. He'd changed his clothes…a bandanna on his head, a yellow shirt under a blue jacket…and flowers? Where had he gotten the flowers from? Then she saw the other things…his hair was much longer…and he carried himself in such a different manner.

She flew to her feet. Her hands slapped to her mouth in shock. Someone gave the boy a bit of a push, and only then did she see the child that was wearing the same clothes from earlier. Two identical faces; two perfectly similar bodies in different clothes, _together.._.

"K-Kouji?" She gasped as she reached out a shaking hand to touch him, and the boy glanced towards his brother for something. Kouichi was laughing. He shoved the boy forwards a bit more and the younger child handed her the flowers.

"Um…nice…to meet you?" He stuttered awkwardly, not sure what it was that he was supposed to say to her. She accepted the flowers without really considering them. Her eyes were locked on her youngest child.

She hadn't seen him in so many years, too many years…far too many years. She gently touched his face and their eyes met. It was startling to see just how similar he looked to his brother whom she had raised for so long. She couldn't believe it. Her son…her _sons _were all together again!

"May…may I hold you, please?" He nodded faintly, and she reached out and wrapped her arms around him while Kouichi took her flowers from her. Kouji felt just right in her arms. At first he didn't hug her back, but then he reached up and wrapped his arms around her waist. Kouichi was smiling and laughing so happily, and she looked at him and pulled him into a hug too. Her babies! Her babies were back together!

They had gone to a restaurant after that. She didn't have much money, but Kouji and Kouichi had already planned for that apparently, they'd been saving up their yen for weeks for this moment. She was so surprised when they both offered to treat her out together.

She could remember feeling so dumbfounded as she watched how easily the boys talked to each other. It was as if they were long time friends. They had known each other for quite some time if they were behaving in such a manner. It was such a blessing.

They liked different foods, she noticed that right away. Kouji steered clear of anything that was too sweet. He said he'd eat it if he had too, but he preferred spicy things. Her mind had gone instantly to all sorts of recipes that she could think of to make him. However, one thing that was most certainly similar was the fact that they both had an affinity towards strawberries. They both ordered like milkshakes and when they did they just rolled their eyes at the similarity.

She wanted to know everything though; she wanted to know exactly who this child was that she hadn't seen for seven years. He told her where he went to school, he told them about his friends. Their names were startlingly familiar.

"Takuya? Izumi? Aren't they your friends too Kouichi?" She asked, frowning as she looked at her son. After he'd fallen down a staircase in Shibuya, there were always children in his hospital room visiting. Takuya and Izumi were only two of the four though. Junpei and Tomoki were there as well. She had started to grow accustomed to hearing about them, and even a few times they'd come over.

Kouichi nodded along though. "Yeah…they're _sort of_ how we met." The whole group had come up with the perfect cover story that she would never know was a lie. The Digital World was an online community that they had all been involved in a chat like format on. Their code names were the names of their digital partners, or spirits, first form. After a while they'd all decided to meet in Shibuya Station. They'd known each other for months before then, but never in person. So they met up, and well…obviously they noticed how similar Kouichi and Kouji looked to one another. Kouichi explained that his Grandmother had told him about his brother and he'd been looking for him, and he _had _known that 'Lobomon' was actually his brother.

They'd met at the station a few more times, and they started to really get to know one another. Then Kouichi remembered he'd left something behind and had rushed down the stairs to get it before it went missing. He'd fallen down those stairs.

Kouji and the others had hurried after him to the hospital and were there when he woke up. They knew (obviously) that Tomoko would be called, but Kouji was too big of a coward to meet her there. There were a few entertaining moments where she had come in unexpectedly, and Kouji had hid under the bed (that part actually was true). Finally they'd decided on introducing Kouji to her at a more appropriate setting…and so there they were.

"Your…father…does he know…?" She had been dreading that question the entire outing. So when they were just finishing up their meal, and getting ready to go – she threw it out with all the courage in her heart. She watched as Kouji and Kouichi met each others' eyes. He shifted awkwardly and when he finally shook his head, she felt her breath be stolen from her.

"He probably won't like this…" Kouji had told her. His fingers played with his sleeves as he glanced towards her. "I'm sorry."

"It's…it's alright." She knew it was true.

"I'll tell him eventually…just not right now." He wouldn't tell his father for another two and a half years. Somehow it 'never had come up.'

"How often does mentioning you met your twin brother come up in average conversation?" She had asked him after the fifth sleep over. "Where have you been telling him you are?"

"Takuya's." Kouji told her innocently enough. Tomoko enjoyed seeing Kouji too much to really feel like ordering Kouji to go tell his father about their time together, but after the boys turned fourteen years old, she knew that this couldn't last. She knew that eventually somehow the man would find out and it was best if they just told him now instead of prancing around the bush. The twins had hated the idea at first, Kouji had told Kouichi how absurdly against any talk of Tomoko had been.

Tomoko herself had been more then a little affronted when she'd discovered that Kousei had lied to Kouji about her even being _alive. _Apparently the running story had been that she'd died in a car crash years ago. "What bout Kouichi?" She'd asked. "You didn't remember him?" It wasn't much of a question because Kouichi himself couldn't remember anything about his younger brother back before he'd seen him at age eleven.

"Nah…I don't remember much about those years." He'd told her calmly enough. "I guess he never figured it was important to tell me. You didn't tell Kouichi either though." He pointed out and she nodded. Both Kousei and her had thought it best to keep the boys from thinking on their brother.

She could remember a time when her four year old son kept screaming and crying for his brother. Soon days and weeks passed and after several years…Kouichi honestly couldn't remember the boy that they'd continually told him never existed. It had been a brutal manipulation of a child's life, but they'd thought it best at the time (her and her mother). She wondered faintly what had ever possessed her mother to tell Kouichi the truth though…

But as she looked at her sons together, laughing and enjoying each others company…she honestly couldn't care less. She was just so grateful that they were all together again. She was just so thankful that she had a chance to meet Kouji once more.

So they eventually told Kousei the truth. She waited outside as Kouji introduced Kouichi. She waited for quite a long time, until her boys opened the door and welcomed her into the house. Kousei looked like he was going to have a fit when he saw her, but he swallowed whatever biting comment he was sucking on, and he made himself another drink.

Satomi looked between them all, feeling a bit out of place. "Hello…my name is Satomi Minamoto…you must be Ms. Kimura?" Tomoko had nodded, feeling just as awkward as Satomi looked.

"Yes…I apologize for barging into your home like this." She looked towards the boys. They looked uncomfortable as well. Apparently things weren't going very well.

"It's quite alright. I never knew that Kouji had a brother! They do look so similar." It was an attempt to be polite and Tomoko was maddeningly grateful for it.

"Yes, imagine my surprise when I saw him!" Satomi was fixing them tea to drink and she offered one to Tomoko.

"Oh I can! I was rather stunned when I walked in the room myself! And such a well mannered boy, you must be very proud."

"I am." Kousei watched the two women talk and didn't say a word. He just continued nursing his liquor in silence.

"I for one, am glad that kids these days don't watch those old movies. Do you remember that one with the little girls at that camp?"

"Oh! When they switched places!" Tomoko sent a horrified look towards the twins who looked equally as conspiratorial as those girls in the movie.

"There's an idea." They said in unison, and light laughter filled the room.

That had only been five months ago. Now the boys were both missing. Tomoko stared around her, taking in the photographs that had the twins smiling and laughing in groups of their friends. She had been keeping up with Satomi and Kousei if only to hear if they'd learned anything else. Takuya and her sons' friends called her up frequently to check up and see if she was alright.

For some reason she felt like it was something that the twins had put them up to doing. _If anything happens to us, you better take care of her._ She could hear Kouichi ordering them. She felt tears forming in her eyes. Her hands picked up a stuffed animal of a black lion that had never made sense to her.

It was something Izumi had given Kouichi for his twelfth birthday. Around its neck was a yin-yang. She had never seen Kouichi with any other stuffed animals before, and he never seemed the type to like them (Kouji even less so), but both had received one from her. Kouji's had been a white wolf with a similar charm around its neck. They both seemed surprisingly touched by the gesture though, and she watched how over the years every one of their group had these odd stuffed animals.

A red dinosaur for Takuya, a polar bear for Tomoki, a purple and pink butterfly for Izumi, and some form of blue pincer beetle for Junpei all made their way into their possessions. She supposed it was some form of inside joke, but she never understood the importance of those items to them.

She simply held onto Kouichi's black lion and held it close to her heart as she cried and cried for the loss of her sons. She just wanted them to come home.

* * *

><p>Kouichi woke up feeling hungry and cold. He glanced around him, yawning slightly as he tried to blink the sleep from his eyes. He shifted, lifting his head to see his brother barely conscious leaning against the wall beside them. He frowned and reached up. His fingers touched his brother's face, and hazy eyes blinked over towards him.<p>

"You're up." The words were surprisingly even. Despite the heavy bags under those eyes and their bloodshot appearance.

"Yeah…you should get some sleep. You've barely gotten any in days."

"Nah…nah I'm good. Don't worry about me Kouichi." He smiled, even as his head started to loll. The older twin glowered at the sight, reaching out and pulling him to his chest.

"Go to sleep. Just sleep Kouji…I'll be here." The younger boy stared at his brother for a while, before nodding ever so slightly, his eyes falling closed in an instant as his body finally overpowered his mind and sentenced him to sleep.

Kouichi sighed as he looked over his brother. His long hair was tangled and knotted and it was a mess. For the past few weeks they'd been mostly left by themselves. Occasionally their kidnapper would show up and he would give them food. Other times it was the quiet girl who never said anything and just deposited their plates on the ground. She would stare at them for the longest time, her eyes boring into them and making them feel awkward and exposed in a way they'd never felt before. Then she would leave, mumbling under her breath and making their worry only increase. Other random 'strangers' came and went without ever being seen, the only signs of their presences were new clothing or food that was offered to them. It was startlingly scary and they didn't like it.

Their kidnapper was the most vocal, and perhaps because of that they'd come to long for those meetings with the man because at least then they would be able to talk to someone. He never stayed for long but he did always leave behind a pearl of some sort for them to chew over.

Right now though, Kouichi would have much preferred a hair brush, tooth brush…a _shower _would be nice. They'd been stuck in this shit hole for weeks and their hygiene apparently wasn't their captor's concern. Time and time again, the older twin ran over the list of reasons for why they were there in the first place. So far he'd come up with so many things, but the more time that passed without anything happening to them, the more things he ticked off his list.

Drugs and prostitution had been his first thoughts, but they'd neither been doped up or sexually assaulted in any way. Well…if you ignored the creepy behavior of the supposed Leader of this organization. That man had honestly been one step away from sexual harassment.

Kouichi remembered easily in school when they were going over various levels of behavior that were acceptable. Green light was when everyone was perfectly okay with the amount of physical contact. In other words – there was _no _physical contact of any sort, yellow light was hugging of somewhat uncomfortable physical contact, and a red light was arrestable offense.

He was heavily banking on the amount of complete asshole-ish-ness that radiated off the bastard, that he was in the red light section. Not to mention the fact that he'd resorted to kidnapping fourteen year old boys from their beds.

Kouji coughed slightly, mewling in his sleep, and Kouichi looked down at him. It had been one of his more pressing concern over their stay at Cells-R-Us. As time passed, his brother's face was starting to get a bit paler; his motions a bit more sluggish, and his mannerisms a bit more clipped.

From past experience, Kouichi knew that these were all the signs of him coming down with some illness or other. He could remember nearly a year ago when Kouji had contracted pneumonia after a rather idiotic game of soccer that hadn't ended when it had started raining enough to flood the field. For some reason, Takuya and his brother had been insistent on playing until someone broke their score.

Both of them had come down with a cold, but somehow Kouji had been the lucky one to get pneumonia out of it. He was crabbier then a crustacean and he had the temperament of a crocodile. Obviously, Kouichi hadn't seen him much since he hadn't left the house. There were a few times though, when the older twin had decided to visit and had dared sneaking in the house long enough to make sure his brother was alright.

After that experience, he never wanted to see Kouji sick again. He was certain if he did, that he'd kill him before the sickness got any worse – if only to save himself the aggravation of dealing with it later. Kouji was absolutely rotten when he felt ill.

The door opened down the hall, and he scooted up, eyes peering around the corner as he tried to see what was going on. It was their kidnapper, tall dark and handsome himself was coming down. Finally someone to talk to…and he wasn't bringing food either.

For a moment, Kouichi was loath to wake up his brother. He'd only been out for a few minutes, and the slightly younger boy desperately needed sleep. He'd been maintaining his vigil from night one, and no matter what he'd said to him…Kouji had adamantly refused to give up for more then half an hour. The boy was nothing if not stubborn. Getting sick though like this wasn't helping anything, the sleep would help…but there were more important things to worry about at this moment.

Their kidnapper stood before them, his eyes dark as he surveyed them on the bed. He didn't say anything, but he had his arms crossed over his chest and he looked like he was sucking on a lemon drop. Something was up.

"Kouji…" The older twin knew that survival came first, and considering the beating that they'd had when they'd first arrived, he'd rather prefer not to play with fire towards this man. His brother was awake physically. His eyes were open and shifting around, but from the blank and confused look on his face, it didn't seem like he was really aware of what was happening.

His eyes landed on the dark haired assailant, and he straightened, an arm going before his brother who rolled his eyes. Like hell Kouji could defend anyone with more body mass then a fly. Apparently the bastard was under the same impression because he snorted.

"Now that we're all bright eyed and bushy tailed…come with me. _Both _of you." The cell door was slid open. Kouichi glanced towards his brother who sighed slightly but nodded and moved to slide off the bed. The second his feet touched the ground and a little bit of weight was applied though, he crashed onto his knees in a dead faint.

"Kouji!" The elder twin flew to his side, only to be roughly shoved out of the way by their assailant. The man's hands went to the younger's throat, feeling for a pulse for a moment before touching his forehead.

"How long's the fever been there?" He looked towards where Kouichi was staring, eyes wide in terror.

"I don't know…not too long. He was getting sick for a few days now, but it wasn't bad-" The boy on the floor was roughly rolled over, his long hair thrown to the side as the kidnapper tugged the teenager's shirt up. The welts and cuts on his back were heavily inflamed. Red and spewing pus, they looked like someone had whipped him yesterday and not weeks ago. "That…that wasn't like that earlier. I checked, God, I _checked_!" Kouichi made a move to get closer, but the man pulled his gun out instantly, aiming it at him.

"Get on the bed and sit your ass down. Don't you make a move, put your hands behind your head and leave them there." Kouichi stared at the man, not quite sure what the hell he was supposed to do, all he could see was his brother's mutilated back and he froze. "Do it kid, or your brother's not going to live to see the doctor."

"Doctor?" Kouichi's voice cracked slightly.

"Yeah, we didn't waste time getting you brats just to have you die on us now did we?" The man touched something on the choker that hung around his neck. "Code 0092, we have a man down in need of medical assistance immediately. Location is A-78." Kouichi backed up slightly, his knees hit the bed and his hands touched his hair.

"Who are you…what the hell do you want from us?" Tears started to form in his eyes. The man's face was passive.

"I can't tell you my name kid." He offered. "As for what we want with you…that's boss's deal. He'll tell you when he's good and ready."

Footsteps sounded. They were running quickly, several people rushed into the cell block, and upon seeing the situation, they paused. One was a tall woman. Long dark hair was pulled back in a pony tail. She was wearing the standard uniform of the Shrine that the twins had seen (and worn) so far, but added to it was a lab coat and a stethoscope. The other was a broad shouldered crew-cut military looking man who rolled his eyes at the scene even as he knelt.

"Kids these days; don't know how to properly take care of anything. What, you think we gave you that anti-bacterial shit just because we thought it smelt nice?" He asked as he glowered towards Kouichi.

"It didn't look like that before! It wasn't that bad! We checked, we checked every day! Both of us!"

"No one likes a critic Ryu, just get him to the med bay so I can get that crap out of him. He'll be fine in a couple of days." The woman muttered as she took a good look at the wounds. The muscle man seemed to get the point though because he reached down and picked up the boy without too much complaint. "And here I was thinking I'd have a day off from babysitting the sick bay."

"Yeah, have fun with that Shikou." The kidnapper muttered even as he kept his gun trained on Kouichi.

"Your rotation's coming up, you skip again, I'll stab you with an infected needle."

"Bite me." Kouichi looked like he was going to stand up and head after his brother, but the safety was clicked off and a warning shot fired clear passed his forehead. He froze. The bullet had passed through the gap his arms made with his hands behind his head. He wasn't moving an inch after that display. "I told you to sit there." The woman and her muscle were gone now, Kouji going with them. "We're gonna talk for a moment."

"Who are you?" He asked, looking after his brother and feeling far more alone now than he had in weeks. "Where did they take him?"

"The brat's going to be fine…Shikou may not look it but she is a doctor, sort of."

"_Sort of?" _

"Calm down."

"_Sort of! _Where the hell are we? Where's my brother?" His breaths were coming in short gasps, his eyes were filling with new tears even as his chest heaved.

"Kid, calm down."

"Don't fucking tell me to calm down. Who the hell are you? What-what-what's going on!" His head was spinning even as he started to hyperventilate.

"Don't make me carry you down to the med bay too." It was an empty warning, because the lack of oxygen through his panicked and shallow breaths sent Kouichi rocketing to his knees. His head was spinning dizzily- too dizzily. He couldn't think straight. "No one fucking _listens _to me anymore." Was the last thing that Kouichi Kimura heard before everything went dark.


	4. Chapter 4

**Windstar: **Thank you very much to my wonderful reviewers, I really appreciate your kind words! I hope that this rewrite continues to exceed expectations and that more and more people will enjoy it. Please let me know if you see any mistakes, and thank you once again for continueing along with this story.

All the best!

**Disclaimer: Remains the same. **

**Chapter Four: **

_Date: +20 days_

_Time: Way too fucking late. _

_Author: Kouji Kohaku_

_When my dad used to leave on business trips, he'd buy enough TV dinners for an army, and ten boxes of cereal. He'd pat my head, say goodbye, and leave. I remember watching him go and not understanding, he never really explained how it was different from just an average work day. Except I could never remember any of the numbers he'd told me countless times to call if I needed something, and so when he never came home, I didn't know what to do. _

_I ate through one box of cereal a day because I didn't know what else to eat, and the microwave had always gotten stuck on the time screen. I couldn't read the instructions, and so for the most part Captain Crunch was my best friend. _

_Dad would come back after a month or so and ask me how everything was. I'd tell him fine because I didn't know what else to say, and he'd nod and things would move on. I guess as a kid I was used to dad walking in and out of my life, so I'd stay there and think about what mom was like. Did he just walk out of her life? What was the point in taking me?_

_Then Dad would remind me that my mother was dead, she died in a car crash during an ice storm. No one found her car until the next morning, and by then she'd died of hypothermia and shock. I suppose it was how graphic it was that made me remember it. That's kind of sick though. _

_Dad took care of me all those years, by himself. When he finally married Satomi, I guess I felt as though I was a failure. He had needed someone else care for me because he just couldn't do it anymore. I hated her because of it, but it really wasn't her fault. She was perfect in every way, and I was just too blind and too angry to see it. I just wanted my Dad to pay attention to me, and me alone. Why couldn't he just manage that? It wasn't too much to ask for, was it? _

_After all...I really believed my Dad loved me, he just couldn't be with me because I was too much of a pest...or he just had to work all that much harder. _

_People say the truth is better then a lie, but the truth didn't make me feel any better, and now that everything's out in the open I wish I'd never known. I wish that I could forget…but it seems my crappy memory is just good enough to make me remember all the shit that fucks with my head. All the shit about my dad, about my brother, about the past three fucking years. It hurts to remember. And I wish I could just stop. I wish..._

_This journal writing bullshit is stupid. Fuck this. I can't believe they think this works. _

**Entry Four: **

**Author: Kibo**

**Sources: Takeru Takaishi, Takuya Kanbara, Tomoki Himi, Izumi Orimoto, Junpei Shibayama, Kouji Kohaku, Kouichi Kohaku**

Kouji, as it turned out, seemed to have gotten infected relatively recently. From what Shikou could find, the wounds _had _been healing up until just a few days ago when an infection set in. Every single cut was (for some reason) pussing violently and he was gagging on phlegm.

The sickness itself would go away in a few days, but it was more along the lines of _how _he got sick that was concerning. Still, after a thorough examination, they'd found nothing out of the ordinary. But even if they had found something, they wouldn't say anything anyway. They kept their information to themselves and that's how it was going to continue to be. The twins were always kept in the dark.

Kouichi was allowed to stay in the (surprisingly) extensive sick-bay for only a day. After that, he was back in his cell. The first night alone wasn't spent sleeping. Every time he closed his eyes he had images of his brother's torn back slamming into his brain. He stayed awake and stared at the cracks in the ceiling, counting them mindlessly as he waited.

His brother was busy coughing all night, and so Kouji didn't get much sleep either. Their kidnapper came in late though, and checked up on him. "You still breathing, brat?"

"Still." He muttered back in annoyance, his breath wheezing as he sat there. The man threw him a smirk before sitting down and propping his feet up on a chair. "You're…not gonna tell us why we're here are you?" Tall-dark-and-creepy shook his head at Kouji's words.

"I have no intention to do so."

"You…could lie."

"Would it make you feel better?"

"It could." He coughed again, his eyes squeezing closed for a moment as his throat burned. The sneeze caught him unprepared when it came, and it hurt worse then the cough did. One hand went to his throat, while the other one fumbled blankly for a tissue.

"I'm not here to make you feel good about yourself though, truth sucks; and it always gets found out."

"Does it…?"

"Yes. I asked around. You have an angel on your shoulder brat, and I don't like it."

"Well, why don't you kidnap that too, since you're so fucking good at it?" Kouji was tugged back roughly by his pony-tail. He gasped, even as he was turned cruelly and painfully and slammed (backside down) onto the table. His injuries screamed in protest, and a strangled scream caught in his throat. He felt like he couldn't breathe all of a sudden, his eyes filled with tears. He choked, trying to turn his head to the side but he was held still.

"Keep your mouth shut about things you don't understand."

There was movement behind him. Two pairs of eyes looked back, seeing the smaller girl that was sometimes seen in the shadows of the hall to the cell block. She was watching them impassively, but there seemed to be a tension that wasn't normally there. Her eyes were narrowing ever so slightly around the edges. She looked put out, annoyed even.

"And _you_. _You _need to stop putting your nose where it doesn't belong." The kidnapper hissed. He released Kouji and let him shift so he was more comfortable. "Every time you come around," he continued to the girl, "things get noisy and chaotic, and I don't want to deal with it."

"Oh sod off, Rei, you're the one making all the noise at three in the morning." Perhaps pissing off the man that held his life in his hands wasn't the brightest of ideas, but for some reason – it didn't occur to Kouji that it wasn't smart. For some reason he simply knew that he wasn't going to actually get hurt if he said anything – at least no more then he already was. Kouichi either. The both of them would be fine.

Dark eyes turned slowly and looked at him. They were quirking downwards, and there was something in that gaze that Kouji couldn't read. "Rei?" He asked more out of curiosity then anything else. The girl took another step forwards, stepping closer into the moonlight that was all that illuminated the room they were currently in. Kouji glanced towards her. It was the most visible she'd ever been.

She wasn't too tall, maybe the same height as him if he slouched. Her hair was a dark brown- darker then Takuya's was that was for certain – but not necessarily black. He'd thought she'd had brown eyes before, but now he could tell they were green. For some reason he had the oddest sensation overcome him – a faint smell of apples and cherry blossoms. In the distance he could have sworn he heard children laughing. It didn't make sense, and the hallucination faded quickly.

"Yeah…" He coughed, glancing back towards his assailant. "It means-"

"I know what it means, why'd you call me that?" His tone was impatient, but it was filled with something else. Worry? Concern? Uncertainty. Kouji couldn't decipher it.

"…Because…it fits." Kouji was frowning at him, and he frowned back. A cough bubbled in Kouji's throat and he turned to his side to hack it out. His breath was rather weak and his lungs crackled in anger.

"Listen, brat…what's going to happen here…" The man sighed, but his voice was soft. It was as though all the wind had been taken out of his sails. "You can't get away from it. No matter how long this takes, no matter what happens, you're not going to be able to get away from this."

"Get away from _what_?" Kouji wheezed painfully, staring up at him with such confusion that the man rubbed his eyes for a moment.

"The Boss…he runs a very elite organization. They're a protectorate of sorts; he controls business assets and stock exchanges. People make bets and he organizes the biggest win through deals and…other things. You're here," He paused, and the door opened once more behind them. The three looked up as the light switch was flicked.

There, standing in a business suit that looked more expensive then all the appliances in the Sick-Bay, was their boss. In his hands was Kouichi Kimura's left arm. The boy looked like he'd been punched a few times, his lip was bleeding and a black eye was forming, but on the whole he looked alright.

Kouji instantly tried to move from the bed, but his right wrist was tied to the bed with a restraint and he couldn't do anything more productive then roll over or sit up. It was why his back had been so sore when the man had roughly flipped him before, his arm had wrenched his back in the wrong direction in the first place. Kouji hadn't really cared much for the thin chain that as looped around his wrist, he understood the reasoning behind it. No one was going to just let him loose in a room full of equipment that could not only kill himself but others as well. He only really took note of them when he was faced with a predicament like this.

His eyes locked on his brother's. _Are you okay? _

And the older boy shrugged somewhat. _Better then you._

"It seems that you forgot to mention to me that the boy was so sick in your report hmm?" The man commented blandly. Rei scowled slightly, crossing his arms over his chest as his boss moved deeper into the room. "How are you feeling, son?"

"I'm not your God-damn son." Kouji snapped without thinking, his voice rough and gravelly as he tugged on the chains. "Let go of him." His kidnapper grimaced slightly, knowing where this was going without having to be told. The boss didn't take kindly to being ordered around, and despite the _special _place in his heart that he had for Kouji, he wasn't going to let such a disrespect go without retribution.

Kouichi was looking at Kouji with perfect ease though, as if he was simply happy to see him and didn't care about the consequences. "We'll count that as one offence for now, lets not forget the rules, shall we?" Kouji bit his lip, and his eyes focused on the floor. Despite the fog that the fever gave him, he could not forget what happened to his brother because of him. Knowing he'd caused another beating suddenly gave him a sharp sinking feeling in his stomach. He did not feel well. He did not feel well at all. "Now, _son_, we're all going to have a nice chat. Why don't you go sit with your brother, Kouichi?" He gave the older twin a rough shove, and it knocked the boy off balance for a moment.

He managed to catch himself, though, and he stumbled towards Kouji with as much grace as a tripper could achieve. He didn't quite seem to know what it was he was supposed to do now, though, and their kidnapper helped him with his decision. Moving pointedly towards them, he roughly dragged Kouji upright (ignoring his hiss of pain and discomfort), and shoved him over so there was enough room for Kouichi to slip in beside him. Quickly moving to sit on the bed, the older twin settled at his brother's side. He allowed himself to have a brief moment of skin on skin contact and he felt a surge of energy as their bond grew exponentially.

"Excellent. Most Excellent." The boss smiled brightly at them both, and approached them casually. "I understand that you've been asking questions, wanting to know why you're here, what your purpose is, to what extent you shall be used for."

"Used?" Kouichi murmured, wincing as a sharp glare was sent in his direction. He snapped his mouth shut, and let his gaze drop away from the man. He felt Kouji's fingers slide around his wrist. Heated flesh met his and he shivered at the temperature difference. He could not recall his brother ever being so distant from him, so polar opposite. The heat hurt physically and spiritually. He wondered if the fever would grow to high and take him away for good. He wondered if he would be left alone, forever.

"You didn't honestly imagine that you were just here for eye-candy did you?" The phrase had both twins wincing and looking away. They didn't want to think harder on that comment. It made them shiver and wince in despair. It seemed to physically burn into their souls. The threat was ever present, and it was something that they were very much aware of. Kouji's fingers gripped harder around Kouichi's wrist. He felt his breath still in his chest. He needed to feel grounded now, and Kouji was doing that. He was doing that very well. "No, we are a business operation. We are a successful enterprise, and we don't just keep loose ends around so that they can ruin things for later. We become…insured."

He waited for a moment, clearly waiting to see if either boy would speak up. Neither did. The boss glanced towards the one that Kouji had named Rei. If the man wouldn't give him a name, he'd give him one himself. It was as simple as that. Rei had worked for him, and it worked for Kouichi too when they had discussed it in a moment of boredom. Now, as the man looked at him, fully aware of the secret conversations the boys had had through the courtesy of the video camera that was always aimed at their bed, he saw easily how the name fit. The boss smirked slightly. They had no idea how well that name fit.

"In order to keep our merchandise safe, and make sure that it doesn't grow legs and run away. Or in your case, grow backbones." The insult hurt, but neither teen said a word in retaliation. "We make sure that they have no reason to run away. You're about to have your reason. You're going to have it very shortly."

"What are you talking about?" Kouji whispered; his voice ragged from illness. Still, it was as polite as he was going to be in this situation, and he didn't know how much more he could give to the man. He didn't know how much more he was willing to offer. A small voice in the back of his head kept reminding him how weak he felt, kept reminding him of his failure to protect his brother, of his failure to do anything right.

He had barely gotten over the embarrassment of that failed test Takuya had showed Kouichi when they had been kidnapped. He had barely gotten over how angry he was at his father, and how the last time he'd seen the man he'd been infuriated. He longed to see his father just one more time, once more so that he could apologize to him, so he could tell him how much he loved him and how much he wished things could have been different. Satomi too, he missed her more then anything else.

The overwhelming sense of failure was starting to creep in on the crevices of his mind and he was starting to doubt that he was ever going to reclaim that sense of assurance and security. He was starting to doubt that he was ever going to feel okay again. It was at this point, that the stability that held Kouji together was first starting to show signs of crumbling.

Sensory deprivation was a powerful tool.

Stockholm syndrome was an even more powerful ally.

"You and your brother have a certain set of talents and traits that I've been made aware of. From sources that I will reveal to you at a later date, I understand you both are relatively good at martial arts and that each of you has an unique ruthless streak imbedded in you." The brothers met each others gazes at that. While Kouji's involvement in Kendo and various other fighting schools was common knowledge, the fact that Kouichi was similarly trained (from his time in the Digital World) was not well known. Only a handful of people in the world knew that, and it was enough to make them feel sick to the stomach. As to the ruthlessness, they had no idea what he was referring too. Kouji could be very hot tempered, and when infuriated Kouichi could have an icy demeanor, but neither considered themselves to be particularly ruthless to anything before; at least, not on earth. "Which is why you'll be joining my Sheild program, and you will be responsible for defending not only my client's best interests, but my own."

"And…how exactly are we going to be doing that, sir?" Kouichi asked quietly, politely. He dared to meet the man's eyes. The boss was smiling brightly at him.

"By killing anyone who gets in my way."

Kouji's eyes shot up to the man, and his mouth fell ever so slightly. His mind tried to process the information that he'd given him, but it didn't seem like everything was firing on all cylinders. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Killing people? They were going to be…killing people? The man stood before them with little emotion in his eyes. He didn't look the least bit surprised nor disturbed by what he had stated. In fact, he looked completely at ease with the information.

Kouichi had gone completely rigid at Kouji's side. His mind had frozen in shock, and he felt like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole. Nothing made sense, and he couldn't understand or piece together the information that was provided before them. It didn't make sense. It couldn't make sense. That was wrong. No one in their right mind would have them do that. It was _wrong, _this whole thing was _wrong_. They had made a mistake!

"No way. We're not killing anyone." Kouji spoke before Kouichi had the chance to do so. It was exactly what he was thinking of, and their bond was humming with their unified agreement. The man that they'd dubbed Rei sighed loudly, and ran a hand through his hair as he looked at them.

"You still don't get it, do you?" He asked after a while. "Either you go out and do what you're told to do or we're going to kill your brother and you're not going to like it when you get back, now will you?" The boss was looking at Rei in interet, a wry smile on his features as he let his kidnapper say his piece. "My specific orders are for us to torture your brother to death if you fail your missions. Do you get it now? You're going to do this. You're going to do it without question, and if you try to escape your brother _will _die."

Kouji couldn't breathe, his mind lost on the man's words. Kouichi was going to be tortured to death? Why, because he didn't kill someone? That wasn't fair! That wasn't fair at all. Yet he knew what he would do if given that particular choice. No one's life was more important to him then his brother's. Still…killing someone. Watching the light fade from their eyes. That wasn't right. That couldn't be right.

"But don't worry. You won't be doing any missions just yet. You need to work up to the actual feidl experience." The boss stated evenly, grinning broader. "Right now, you just have to worry about training to fulfill your purpose in life. I've decided that it would benefit you both if you were not together during this experience. Still, at the end of your _lessons_ you will be together I'm sure. That is…if you don't mess it up for the other." The boys stiffened at the threat. The understood what it meant, yet it hurt nonetheless. "I hope you enjoy your time in the sick bay, Kouji. While you're here, your darling brother is going to start his lessons. Do get better soon. It will be your turn next."

Kouji gripped Kouichi's wrist harder, but it would be fruitless. The boss had turned and begun to walk away, leaving the room with a silent command issued to his subordinates. Rei moved to Kouichi's side, and roughly tugged him as hard as he could away from the bed that he was sitting on in shock. Kouji struggled, hazily reaching out for his brother, weakly calling for him. All the while, Kouichi tried to do the same.

It wouldn't matter, and their fighting was useless in the end. Neither would get what they wanted in this situation. They were taken apart from one another, and neither knew if they were ever going to see the other again. The young girl that had been watching the whole scene, turned and left just as quickly as the others did. She didn't so much as stay behind to observe Kouji's mental breakdown.

As he was left alone, Kouji tugged at the chain at his wrist, frustration filled inside of him. _Failure!_ Kouji's mind reminded him, as he watched Rei drag Kouichi away from him. _You're a failure!_ He'd done it again. He'd let someone take his brother, and let his brother come to harm, and it was all his fault.

Kouichi, for his part, was led down the various halls of the building until he was stopped in front of a door. Rei's hand was on his shoulder, and it seemed as though they were completely alone and isolated for the moment. Rei was contemplating whether or not he should say something to the boy at his side, but eventually he decided something was worthwhile.

"If you do what they say, and you don't complain, you're going to be fine." He offered.

"He wants me to kill someone, how could that possibly be fine?" Kouichi asked. "He wants my brother to kill someone. That's not fine!" His voice rose in pitch, and for a moment Rei wondered if he would become hysterical. He didn't, however, and he instead remained just extraordinarily agitated.

"The people you're going to kill, they're meaningless. Nothing else matters except for the Shrine, and your loyalty to the Boss."

"How can you say that, they're lives. They're human beings."

"You don't know who you're going to be killing." Rei pointed out.

"It won't matter! They're still humans!"

"And each life is weighted differently. Each life has a different purpose to it. You have a choice, Kouichi. You can either choose to let your brother die, and not kill the one you're sent after, or you can kill him and your brother lives. Every day you're on assignment, that's the choice you will be presented with. If you can't live with that choice, Kouji will die." Kouichi's mouth set in a thin line. He looked up at Rei with dark eyes. "So tell me, Kouichi, who's life do you value more then your brother's? Who is it that we should be torturing every time you make a mistake? If it's not Kouji, if we chose the wrong person to harm, then who is it? Who else is out there that you would _kill _for?"

Kouichi didn't reply, couldn't reply. The question itself was innocent. It was one of those questions that a friend would ask another friend during a moment of levity. Who would you die for? Who would you kill for? Who do you cherish most? It was a question that for Kouichi really only held one answer. It wasn't a person; it was a type of person. He would do anything for his family. He would do anything to protect his mother, his brother, and the friends he made in the Digital World. He'd already proven he would die for his brother. He would now kill for him too. That was a way of life, and it was something that he was willing to accept.

Rei opened the door before them, and motioned for him to go in front of him. Kouichi did as he was commanded, and he glanced around. The floor was padded. There were plain white walls around them, and on each one was a rack of weapons. Most of them were blades, although there were several blunts as well. Staves and various sized hammers looked out of place beside each other, but the collection was impressive.

A single woman stood before them, and it took Kouichi a moment to recognize her as the doctor who had been caring for his brother. The sight surprised her. He vaguely recalled her name was Shikou and that she was an extremely determined force. She was an alpha-female personality who commanded whichever room she was in. She was commanding them now, without even saying a word.

Her posture was determined, strong. He stood with a straight back, a threatening pose. Her face was neutral and her eyes were sharp. She wore a pale blue shirt, the only difference between what the twins had been asked to wear and what she was sporting. She was taller then them, and taller then Rei as well; maybe six feet tall to be accurate. Her hair was a long and dark pony tail that reached down to her middle back, and her skin was a very fair white that clearly showed that she was either not a native or mixed blood.

"I am Shikou. I am going to be your instructor while you are here. Do you understand?" The woman asked as she stepped closer to them. For a brief moment, Kouichi had the irrational urge to take a step behind Rei. The man would certainly not find it amusing, nor would he accept such behavior. It was despicable, but he had the urge nonetheless. Instead, he held his ground, and took a deep breath. He needed to be calm. He needed to accept the situation.

"Yes ma'am." She smiled slightly at him.

"You're polite, I like that. It will make our training go much easier." She nodded towards Rei, and the man took it for the dismissal that it was. "Now. I want you to try to hit me." She said simply.

"Ma'am?" Kouichi asked in confusion. "I don't understand…"

"Hit me…anywhere. I want you to hit me." She stood in front of him without looking the least bit concerned for her own welfare.

"Hit you?"

"Yes. Hit me. If you can do so then I will excuse you from lessons for the rest of the day. We will begin each class like this. Are we understood?" Kouichi frowned at her, but nodded regardless of how foolish he felt.

He fell into the defensive position that his brother had taught him and she regarded him with a different light in her eye, as though she was seeing him for the very first time. He didn't rush his punch nor did he spend too much time concentrating on it. He simply observed her stance and made a calculation regarding how fast she could move. He was wrong, and the punch was blocked easily even though his speed far surpassed what should have been expected for him. He had the digital world's extensive fighting to attribute to that. Kouji may have taught him specifics on stance and form, but everything else had been based off of experience.

"Good. You seem to have a very fine concept on fighting; however your speed is not close enough to hit me. Your defense…however." He gasped in surprise when a punch he hadn't even seen came under his arm and struck his solar plexus with a hard and dizzying speed. He fell to his hands and knees and coughed in pain as he looked up at the person above him. "You will need to work on your technique." Kouichi couldn't believe what he was seeing. She had barely moved at yet her strike was enough to send him to the ground. "Get up…it is time we began your training. Your first mission will be in two months. I hope you are prepared, because if you're not, there will be consequences." Kouichi's eyes narrowed but he nodded.

This was a challenge, and he was very good at accepting challenges. He was very good at beating the odds. He was going to win, and he was going to show her that he was going to take Kouji and him out of here before they killed anyone. He was going to show her that they weren't pawns in her boss's game, they were human beings, and they were going to get out of here.

* * *

><p>It had been just over two months when Izumi's parents told her that she needed to stop putting her life on hold so she could find her friends. She angrily told them that they could go screw themselves, and stormed out of the house. An hour later, drenched from the pouring rain that seemed to be the theme of her life, she arrived on Takuya's doorstep crying harder then she'd ever cried before.<p>

She was a mess, and he did the only thing that he could think about doing. He held his arms out wide, and wrapped her in the biggest hug that he could manage. He brought her inside, gave her a change of clothes, and together they mourned for their missing friends. Takuya's father called Izumi's parents to let them know where she was, and they thanked him profusely for his knowledge. They would never admit it, but after the twins had vanished, they had been extra vigilant on knowing exactly where she was at all times.

All the parents in the neighborhood had been like that. Rarely were there children walking alone now a days, everyone was accompanied by someone. Police officers would stop people on the street and question their activities, often times escorting children home if they looked particularly uncertain. It seemed the kidnapping was affecting the whole neighborhood.

On one hand, it was nice to see that something good had come of it. On the other hand, it was sickening. These people hadn't even known the boys; they were just reacting because they were thinking about themselves. For Kouji and Kouichi's friends, they couldn't help but feel betrayed. Why were all of these measures starting now, and not before? Why was it so easy for them to have been taken in the middle of the night then? Why wasn't the neighborhood more vigilant before they were taken?

The constant hum of rumors was everywhere. Many of their peers simply believed that they had run away from home and that they were going to show up in a few days. As the weeks passed though, that likelihood was dropping. Even the most boisterous supporters of that theory were starting to consider the possibility of the kidnapping actually being real. A new string of terror and bullying accompanied it.

"I bet he saw his test score and couldn't take the shame anymore! The only thing he could do so it wouldn't look bad was have someone take him away!" Takuya earned himself a suspension from school for punching that particular upstart in the nose so hard that he'd broken it and cracked a cheekbone at the same time. His parents weren't too pleased with him, but they didn't exactly scold him. They knew well enough just how miserable he had been since the kidnapping took place.

Izumi wasn't the only late night visitor that they'd had in recent days. Junpei and Tomoki showed up more often then not, both looking down trodden and needing some company. It wasn't hard to see that Takuya was the unofficial glue that held them all together. He was what joined their group in one common ground, and the Kanbara family politely opened their doors for his friends whenever they needed to come, to talk, and to get something off their chests.

Days were passing with greater fluidity, and the lack of information from the police department was frustrating Takuya more and more. "What do you mean you haven't found them?" Takuya asked angrily as he clenched his fists. "It's been two months!" His father hesitated slightly at the boy's tone. "How long does it take to find two identical twins? I mean, you find one you find the other! You have a bigger chance of finding them then you do your solitary cases!"

"Takuya…things are more complicated then it seams. We are trying to find the boys as soon as possible but there's a very high percentage that says we won't find them." The man replied heavily. What he couldn't tell his son, that in most child abductions the children didn't last more then twenty-four hours. After two months, the likely hood of them even still being alive was incredibly slim.

"You're not even looking for them anymore are you?" Takuya shouted, his voice getting louder and more irrational with each passing second.

"Takuya…there are other cases, there are other things that-"

"They're more important! They're more important then anything else! How could you betray them? You knew them! You _knew _them! You're just letting whatever sicko who has them take them away and you're not doing anything!"

"Takuya…you have to understand, there hasn't been any more information. There's nothing to go off of. Whoever took them did a great job making it look like the boys just ran-"

"They didn't run away!"

"I know that son, but-"

"No! They're my friends dad, and if you can't find the time to help them then I will!" The teenager ran from the house with hell on his heels. His heart burned hatefully and his temper was hotter then anything it had ever been before. He quickly pulled his cell phone out and dialed his friend's numbers.

It didn't take them all long to meet in Shibuya station, and they went to the elevator that led them straight to the digital world on that fateful meeting all those years ago. Standing before it now, the team knew that there was only one place that could effectively have taken their friends without leaving any trace.

"Will it even work?" Tomoki asked worriedly, looking at the elevator with nervous energy. Izumi's face was stern. She didn't care what anyone said, right now she wanted answers and she was willing to do anything and everything in her power to find the twins. Even if it meant being let down one more time.

Her hand reached out and she punched the down button on the elevator. They all waited in silence, until the elevator appeared before them. Then, they stepped inside, made certain no one else was with them, and shut the door. Takuya pressed the down button, and they all held hands, and prayed in unison.

_Please, please take us back to the Digital World. We need to go there! Please! _

The elevator roared to life, and started to descend, and with each passing floor they begged for it to just keep going, to never stop. They begged for it to take them to the depths of the earth and beyond. They begged for it to send them to the terminal where they could reach the Trailmon that could take them back to the world where people vanished and were never heard from again.

They held their eyes closed, and they begged, and pleaded, and wished, and hoped, and sent all of their energy and thoughts into the elevator. It dinged its call for the final stop, and they opened their eyes. The door opened with their eyes and they were met with the sight of Shibuya Station's basement.

They hadn't been teleported, as they had been, years before. They had simply stayed on earth. Their one last chance to discover if Kouji or Kouichi had been taken to another world, their last attempt to see if maybe, just maybe, they had been dragged onto an adventure that they couldn't call for help with, had been thwarted. Takuya hit the down key again, but the elevator wouldn't budge. It was insistent that it wouldn't descend any further.

Then and only then, did they start to cry, and their hope for the first time, started to fade.


	5. Chapter 5

**Windstar: **Apologies for the delay, I've started a new job and it's been stressful with the transition. I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter Five: **

_Date: +587 days_

_Time: 0549_

_Author: Kouichi Kohaku_

_We're in Nevada now. There isn't really much to see. We skirted around Las Vegas, because none of us wanted to enter the city. We wanted to stay away from the endless noise and the bustle of people. The crowds would have been too much, and the noise would have been worse. I think Kibo was upset about that; he was looking forward to trying out the casinos. Hikari told him that it was better that he didn't – he never won at those games. _

_In celebration for our proximity to Sin City, though, she brought out a deck of cards and we started to play a few games together. I found myself growing infuriated with Kouji every few minutes though. He couldn't seem to keep focused on the game at hand, and whenever it was his turn he messed up on the rules. Kibo and Hikari are way too accommodating at times; they let him get away with everything. _

_He's never going to get better if they keep that up. I told them as much too. They're babying him. He needs someone to tell him how it is, not let him go through life thinking he can do whatever the hell he wants to do. I get that he's hurting and that he's upset with everything, but he needs to _get over it_. I went through the same stuff as him, but I'm not crying over it every day. _

_And that's the worst part, he's not even crying. He's just staring blankly at everything around him and then suddenly flying off the handle on the smallest things. He broke our portable stove the other day because he was having a temper tantrum. He just picked it up and tossed it as hard as he could against a rock. He's completely unstable. _

_I'm not saying that I'm the best either, because I know I'm not, but at least I'm dealing with everything. At least I'm controlling my God-damn temper. It's like a bull in a china house. He's just a wrecking ball of destruction. I know that we left Japan because the surroundings and the people were getting to be too much, but in all honesty – he's getting to be too much. _

_It's been just over a year and three months since we left everything behind, and while I feel as though I've grown spiritually, Kouji definitely has not. By now, I'm almost certain that he needs professional help. He's a danger to himself and people around him. How long is it going to be before he snaps and starts to kill someone again?_

_As soon as I think these things, I am filled with intense regret. He's my brother. I was there with him as we were locked up against our will. I was with him through everything, and yet despite that I want to send him away, have him locked up again? He doesn't deserve that, and I know that…and yet I cannot keep the thoughts from my head. Kouji's not handling things well. He can barely function as a part of society. I'm regretful for thinking those thoughts, but I cannot keep from feeling as though it might be for the best. _

_But that's exactly what we were told. Staying in that place, in that Shrine, was for the best. We were doing things for the greater good. We killed people for the greater good. We were told all of these things…and I wonder if it's me who hasn't healed. _

_I wonder if it is me who still is holding onto the ways of the past. After all, these temper tantrums weren't allowed back then. In a way, Kouji is rebelling against the system that was in place in the most rudimentary ways. I still follow their creed…and I'm condemning him for it. _

_Albert Einstein once said "the question that sometimes drives me hazy, am I or the others crazy?"_

_I can not help but feel the same. _

**Entry Five: **

**Author: Kibo**

**Sources: Takeru Takaishi, Takuya Kanbara, Tomoki Himi, Izumi Orimoto, Junpei Shibayama, Kouji Kohaku, Kouichi Kohaku**

It took another week before Kouji was well enough to go into training. During that time, he hadn't seen or heard anything about Kouichi. The doctor who came to check on him never spoke except when it pertained to his health, and Rei hadn't made a reappearance. Kouji spent every day of that weak, curled on his side and staring at the wall across from him. The constant thought of being a failure was the only thing that was running through his mind.

All of this was happening because he was too weak, too slow, too injured, too sick, too _something_.

If the staff around him was aware of his looming depression, they didn't say anything about it. Instead, they tactfully stayed silent and just did what they'd been explicitly instructed to do. It wasn't something that they particularly enjoyed, and in truth, they were grateful when the day came for Kouji to leave the sickbay and start doing some physical hand to hand training.

Rei came and took him away, just like he'd done for Kouichi. Kouji felt almost ashamed when he was actually _happy _to see the man. He had felt irrationally betrayed by the man's disappearance, and now he felt as though everything was normal again.

Rei handed him some clothes to change into, and he did so quietly and without complaint. It was a sad state of affairs, and Rei was actually almost hoping for some attitude sooner or later. Anything that shook the kid out of his revere would be good by him right about now.

Still, he placed a hand on the younger twin's shoulder and led him down the halls that he needed to go down. With each step, he focused on Kouji's gait. If there were any signs he wasn't well enough to do this, then they'd turn around now. The kid couldn't just go head first into this type of training if he was still ill, it was a sure fire way to get him killed.

When they reached the door that led to the training room beyond, Rei opened his mouth to say something like he had for Kouichi. He closed it almost immediately though. As he looked at the kid before him, he could tell that there was nothing that was going to snap the kid out of this. He'd seen the same reaction on too many initiates in the past, and he knew that there were very few things that would help.

"You'll make it, brat." Was all he managed to work out, before he pushed the door open and deposited Kouji passed the doorway.

His instructor had specifically been chosen for him. Like Kouichi's trainer, he was picked because of his compatibility with his supposed fighting style. Kouji had more experience then Kouichi, and so he had also been given a more experienced instructor. It was meant to be a compatible relationship.

In the past, there had been initiates, like Kouji and Kouichi, who had been paired with trainers that did not fit well for them. The initiates usually died. Rei doubted that would be the case here. The boys practically lived for each other. They wouldn't die for no reason.

The man that had been picked for Kouji was the same man who had carried him to the hospital. He didn't usually help out in the sickbay, but he'd been filling in a shift for a worker who did not make it out of his last mission alive. He introduced himself blandly as 'Ryu,' and then told Rei he could leave.

"I'm going to be the one to get you into shape." Kouji glanced up at him listlessly, not seeming to even take notice of the words. His eyes were busy taking in the man's body and form. Ryu was heavily muscular. His chin was square, and he had small eyes. His nose was large, and he did not have any hair on his head, though his face was hidden with a scruffy beard. His clothing was designed for fast movement and easy stretch positions. He wore work out shoes, and he was comfortable in this environment.

His voice was low and gravelly, but he didn't seem to particularly care or take notice of how it sounded or came across to others. He was filled with self-confidence and he easily thought that he was the most important person in the room. He was filled with an inner intelligence, because even as Kouji assessed him, it was clear that Kouji himself was being assessed.

"You've been on medical leave for a while now, so I doubt you're in top form. We're going to be working on your endurance until I think we're ready for the next step of our process." Kouji blinked at him, and if it hadn't been for a small flicker in his eyes, Ryu might have thought that he was a lost cause. There was something in there though, buried deeply under everything that was around him. There was something that made him, inherently, _living. _"You're not a mute, when I tell you something, you give me a response. Do you understand?" Another flicker, and it took a moment to translate.

The kid was a typical smart ass in the past. Now every one of his responses could lead to the potential harm of a loved one. It wasn't that he didn't _want _to say something, it was that he didn't know how to word what he wanted to say.

"I'm not the boss kid, and I aint gonna rat you out. So just spit out whatever it is that's on your mind."

"Where's my brother?" The words were half whispered- ghost like. They were quieter then what Ryu anticipated, but there was an emotion there that was powerful and unrepentant.

"He's training with another person."

"Who?"

"Can't tell you that."

"Why?"

"That's the rule."

"Whose rule?"

"The boss's."

"Who is he?"

"Can't tell you that either."

"Why?

"In case you escape."

"I won't leave without Kouichi."

"Then you don't need to know."

"When would I need to know?"

"If you escaped."

"But you just…"

"It's a catch-22 isn't it?"

Kouji bit his lip. He looked away from the man. He shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. His stance was rigid, tense. He was uncomfortable and he didn't want to be there. But that wasn't what he wanted to say. There was something else, something else that was bubbling in him that Ryu could read off of every pore in his body. The kid was stewing on something big, and for a moment, Ryu was certain he would explode if he didn't just get it out.

"Spit it out already." He encouraged, desperate to just get on with their training session and move on with the day. They weren't going to get anywhere if the kid was playing mute though, and he needed to know everything his student was thinking if he was going to train him effectively. Kouji's face darkened slightly at the encouragement. He bit his lip even harder, and his fingers started to tug at his sleeves. "I don't have all damn day, and neither do you, so spit out whatever you're mulling over and get it over with."

"I…can I…"

"_What is it already_?"

"I don't want to be alone when we're done." At that Ryu started a little.

"Kid, when's the last time you actually were _with _someone? You had an actual conversation with someone?"

"When Kouichi left. The doctor…she won't talk to me, and Rei stopped visiting." The attitude made sense now, and Ryu's heart sank slightly. The kid was too young to go through this particular tactic, and while it was brutally effective, it also meant that it was devastatingly permanent. If something did happen then it would be hell to get him back on the right track.

Sensory deprivation was one of the crudest tactics in the book, but isolation was the easiest way to get someone to talk. Humans needed contact with others. They needed to be able to communicate with those around them. If they aren't given stimulus, brain cells literally begin to die.

By forcing Kouji away from his brother he was keeping him away from the only contact he had to the outside world. By keeping him from being able to speak to anyone, he was slowly yet surely becoming more dependent on the only people who _would _converse with him. Right now, it seemed like Ryu was that person.

Kouji was getting desperate, and the fact that Ryu was simply letting him talk was enough. Even for a self-proclaimed loner, he still communicated with people around him in the past on his own terms. He spoke with his father daily, and people who were talking to each other all the time surrounded him. He hadn't needed to speak or to converse with others because he could immerse himself in the noise of their words. In the sickbay, he'd heard nothing. There was nothing except the sound of his own breathing, and Shikou doing paperwork.

Not even a loner could have managed to hold his own in that. Ryu wasn't surprised to find that the kid was falling apart. What sickened him more, though, was how fast it was happening. He knew exactly what he was supposed to do, and what he was supposed to say. He was supposed to be the good guy. He was supposed to be the one that the kid turned to and looked up to.

It wouldn't be hard to act that way, and in truth, it was how he wanted to act in the first place. Unfortunately, that meant that he was going to make the problem worse. He wondered how long it would take before the conversion was complete, and there was nothing that tethered Kouji down except for his bonds to this Shrine and to the employees who worked there.

"We'll see what happens alright? For now, focus on what you're doing here." Ryu took a deep breath and wondered faintly just what it was that their leader was hoping to get out of this. "Do you know how to stretch properly?"

"Yes…"

"Then do it." Ryu moved passed him and started to move towards the door. "I'll be back in a little while, if you're not ready by then, you're going to be uncomfortable." Kouji nodded slightly, but didn't outwardly reply.

Ryu didn't have the time or the patience to think about that right now. Instead, he had other things to worry about. Stepping out into the hall, he closed the door behind him, and waited to hear what would happen. He wasn't surprised when he heard the boy try the doorknob or tug on the structure. It wouldn't open for him. It wasn't going to. It locked the moment Ryu left it.

Shaking his head slightly, he pretended he didn't hear the frustrated voice of the teenager he left behind. He'd be back for him later. He moved swiftly, knowing he wouldn't have much time to do this, but he needed answers as soon as he could. When he reached the secondary training room that he knew to be occupied already, he palmed open the door and slipped inside.

It was always unnerving to him to see Kouichi so soon after seeing Kouji. Their identical appearances made it difficult to decide which one was which. Difficult, but not impossible. Kouji was far more listless at the moment, where it seemed like Kouichi wanted nothing more then to beat Shikou into submission.

The various strikes and attacks were blocked with mindless ease on her part though, and she didn't even seem to be trying as she coached him through the training exercise. "Good, good, faster, stronger, left, right, eyes up, guard up- _not like that!_" She landed a hit that sent him to his knees and he gasped slightly, coughing as the air was forced from his lungs. Shikou turned and met Ryu's eyes with a frown. "What is it?" She asked calmly, already moving towards a bench where a bottle of water was lying in wait. She tossed it towards the teenager on the ground, and then scooped one up for herself.

"Just a question, if you don't mind. In private?" She frowned slightly at him, but nodded. Turning her head back to the boy she was working with she made a brief hand motion.

"Run some laps around the room." Then she followed Ryu out, and left Kouichi to his own devices. It wasn't all that surprising to hear the footfalls of someone doing what they'd been told to do, and it seemed like Kouichi was assimilating better then his brother was. "What is it?" She asked Ryu tersely, clearly not enjoying the interruption.

"The other boy, he's been taken from the sickbay, where is he going afterwards?"

"I haven't the foggiest notion, why?"

"No one has spoken to him in over a week. He needs to actually be with a human." Shikou's eyes softened at that, and her posture became more resigned then rigid. She took another sip from the water bottle in her hand, and leaned against the wall behind her.

"I had orders…"

"I'm not accusing you." He assured lightly. He understood, and he knew that had she had a choice, she would have spoken to Kouji. She would have let him keep some form of sanity through all of this.

"He's a sweet boy." She said lightly, and glanced at the door they'd just exited. "They both are."

"I'm aware of that, what I want to know is if he's going to be alone again, that type of isolation is not productive to anything right now."

"Have Rei bring him back to Kouichi's cell. They'll be fine together; it'll be good to reaffirm their reason for staying as well. I'll work it out with the boss." Shikou sighed, and rubbed her eyes. "After all of these years, it's heart breaking to see that child here."

"He'll survive, he'll live through this. They both will."

"He doesn't remember." Shikou murmured softly.

"I know he doesn't." Ryu replied. "That doesn't change the fact that we're all having a hard time being near him. We just have to work through the problem." Shikou nodded at the wise words, and he tipped his head. Turning to head down the hall, Ryu waved slightly, and Shikou turned to start to head back into the workspace where Kouichi was training.

Ryu didn't take long returning to where he left Kouji, and when he opened the door, he didn't see the boy right away. He took a step inside, and blinked at the completely empty space. Then, just as sudden as that surprise hit him, a much more physical strike cracked on the back of his leg. He felt his knee bend out of instinct and he winced as he hit the ground.

He barely had time to see Kouji duck out of the room and down the hall before he pushed himself back onto his feet. "Clever kid, real clever." He hissed in frustration as he chased the boy down.

Despite lying on his back for the better part of two weeks, Kouji was surprisingly fast. What was even more surprising was how he seemed to be running straight towards Kouichi. If Ryu didn't know better, he would have thought Kouji _knew _where his brother was. That was impossible though, and he didn't hold much stock in rumors.

He was taller then the teen and it didn't take long for his legs to reach out and gain in ground against the boy. Reaching his arm out, he roughly took hold of the back of the kid's shirt. Kouji's momentum kept him going forward, and his shirt clotheslined him roughly, dragging him backwards and knocking himself off balance in the process. His feet slipped out from under him as he lost traction, and Ryu capitalized by grabbing hold of the boy's arm and held him upright.

Kouji's free hand reached back to strike at him, but he caught that too. All the while the boy coughed and gagged as his abused throat told him it hadn't appreciated the sudden jerk that it felt. Ryu didn't seem to care though, and instead he gave the boy a rough shake. "You do that again, and I'm going to report you to the leader. You _know _what happens then right?"

"I want to see my brother."

"If you'd let me get a word out earlier I would have told you you were going to see him after our training session. Now I'm not so sure!" Ryu hissed in irritation. Kouji's eyes widened and his face adopted a severely panicked look. "You prove to me that its worth while to let you see him and I'll do it, understand?"

"Yes."

"Good, now that that's settled. I believe you were coming with me?" Ryu roughly threw the teen back onto the floor and the implied threat was there. Kouji didn't need to be told twice though, and he followed the man instantly without question.

The hours that followed that encounter were rough and violent. Ryu seemed impressed enough by his escape attempt and quickly started to advance into more complicated tactics and ideas. He launched into various techniques and skills, and was honestly impressed by the boy's genuinely talented nature.

Kouji was an extremely well versed fighter, and he was more then capable of showing his skill. His form was unique to himself, but it was structured and influenced by different disciplines. As time passed, Ryu smiled at the sight of the boy and just how well he was doing. The more they conversed, traded blows, and had various exchanges; the more fire was brewing in Kouji's eyes. He was a far cry from the boy that had walked into the room earlier, and the contact with another person had done him good.

When Ryu finally decided to call it quits for the day, he made a call for Rei to come pick Kouji up and bring him back to his cell. Before the man opened the door and retrieved the teenager though, Ryu put a hand on Kouji's shoulder and met his eyes with an intense gaze. "Never loose that spirit of yours kid. It makes you who you are."

He wasn't certain if Kouji understood what he was trying to say, but the boy nodded and seemed to be mulling over the words even as he was led back down to his brother.

* * *

><p>Four months after Kouji and Kouichi had been taken, no one had seen or heard from them. There had been no ransom demand, there had been no threatening phone call, there had been nothing. Kousei, Satomi, and Tomoko listened to the police talk about their sons and they watched as the phone calls grew less frequent and the communication between them all became less vivid.<p>

It wasn't hard to see that the boys were being taken off the front burner, and the news was crushing. It was even worse when one officer suggested that they make a gravesite for them. "Have you found their bodies?" Tomoko had all but screeched, tears pouring from her eyes as she bore into the man.

"No…"

"Then they're not dead! Go and find them! Find my sons!" The man left then, and there was no more talk about it.

Of all the Officers who were searching for the boys, the most dedicated was Takuya's father. The man understood without being reminded (though he was, every day) that this was important. He spent hours on overtime, pouring over old documents and looking over leads. He asked dozens of questions to anyone who would give him the time of day.

"Did you have any enemies?" He'd ask the boys' parents. "Did they?"

"No, no."

"Do you know anyone who was too close to them? Someone who hung around more then they should? Was there any adult that wanted to spend specific time with them?"

"No…no."

"Did they go anywhere they could have attracted specific attention from an individual?"

"I don't know…"

"Who else knew that both boys were here that night?"

"What are you trying to say?"

"If Kouichi wasn't supposed to stay over, then it might be possible that the attack was only meant for Kouji…Kouichi could have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or, the kidnapper didn't know who it was that he was supposed to take – so he took both."

"Are you saying that Kouji was specifically targeted?"

"There is a reason that this was a home invasion, people don't just break into houses unless they are absolutely certain on what's going to happen. This was carefully planned out, organized. The man who did this may have had a partner, someone who could have assisted with both boys if things got too out of hand. They would have had to be quiet though, or else it would have woken you up. Whoever kidnapped your sons knew your routine; he knew where they'd be and what they'd be doing. Kouichi coming over was unplanned; it wasn't predictable. It's a good bet that whoever went into your home, wasn't aiming for Kouichi, but Kouji."

"Why would anyone want Kouji?"

"I don't know." And he didn't know, he didn't know what he could possibly say to any of them to make this right.

Kouji was simply a good boy who hung out with his son. He always bickered constantly with Takuya but the two of them were great friends. He was protective of Kouichi, and he was exceedingly polite to authority figures. The detective honestly couldn't understand who would want to kidnap Kouji, and what they would want to do with him. It didn't make any sense, and the lack of contact from the perpetrator just made it worse. It made everything worse.

They simply had nothing to go on, and this was fast becoming a cold case.

He didn't know how he was going to tell Takuya, and so he kept at it. He kept striking at the problem; it was the only thing that he could do for his son.

As the holiday season came and went, it nearly broke his heart to hear his son tell him the only thing he wanted for Christmas was Kouji and Kouichi home safe. When he failed in doing that, Takuya refused to open even one of his presents. He gave them all to his brother, and sulked in his room all day.

"How can we be celebrating when they're out there somewhere with a mad man?" The teenager asked painfully.

No one knew how to respond to him. No one knew what to say.

Every day that passed, less information came to him. The detective was running out of options, and he didn't know what to do anymore. He was almost certain that everything was falling apart and that there was no way that they were ever going to see Kouji or Kouichi again. If they did, it was going to be because they escaped themselves, or their bodies were discovered in a dumpsite. There was nothing that made the man feel like he was going to find the twins, and the thought just made him sulk even more.

The seasons started to change, and the twins' birthday came and went in a depressing affair. Tears were everywhere, and everyone was sinking down in misery. Hirokai grimaced as he watched them all deteriorate. He knew that he had to keep trying, and he kept at it, but soon the people he called were getting frustrated with his attempts to extract more information out of them, and he was running out of option.

He didn't understand how two boys could just disappear without a trace, without any mention of where they might go.

The kids were all going to Shibuya station daily, a ritual that he still didn't understand. Maybe they hoped the twins would magically appear there, and they could all go home together. Whatever the case may be, it didn't make sense, and he felt as though he was failing his son for not being there, for not finding them.

It had now been seven months since the boys had disappeared. On the news report that night, a man had been murdered in his home, and when police arrived they'd found copious amounts of child pornography and a young boy hiding in a closet by himself. On one hand it was nice to see the boy got home unmolested, on another hand…it was just a constant reminder of what the twins could be going through. He grit his teeth and felt nothing but contempt and anger as he thought about how some person had the boys and was keeping them from their family.

And a dark part of his soul, hoped that someday, someone would kill the man who took them, and that they would be returned home. It was the only thing that they could think about as he went to sleep that night.

He never imagined that it was Kouichi Kimura who had murdered the child molester, solidifying his role in the community that had took him away from his home.


	6. Chapter 6

**Windstar: **Not only is this chapter woefully late in posting, but it's also barely proofread. Apologies, but I'm rushing in the middle of a book deadline and two full time jobs - it's driving me tres fou! Hopefully the updates will come faster and be less sporadic, but with the endless amounts of writing and work I seem to be doing, I'm having a hard time seeing that through. Thanks for waiting so long, and I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter Six: **

_Date: Unimportant _

_Time: Who knows?_

_Author: Kouji Kohaku_

_I got a call from Akito today. I didn't really know what I was supposed to say to him, and he did most of the talking. I guess that's a good thing. He told me to keep focusing on sorting out my head, but I don't know what I'm supposed to be sorting out really. Kibo and Hikari are real nice and all, but I don't think I'm ever going to be one hundred percent okay with everything that had happened. Kouichi and I can't even talk properly anymore, and I don't know if it's going to get any better._

_I've been thinking a lot about the Digital World lately. More so then usual. I know that the others went back and that Kibo and Hikari know how to open the gate to get there, but there's a part of me that's not sure I want to know what's going to happen if I go. I don't know if I'm balanced enough to go. Back then, I was working out my problems with my dad, but now is something different. Now I'm working out my problems with myself. _

_I don't know if I can trust myself to be around other people anymore, and maybe it'll be nice to go someplace where everything is so simplified. Earth is so complicated, so confusing. Everyone expects something of you, and everyone expects that things are just going to be okay right then and there. But that's not going to happen, that's irrational, and completely unrealistic. I can't do that to myself, and I can't meet up to everyone's expectations. _

_I know that I'm not the smartest kid in the world, and I know that I don't have everything down to an exact science. I know that everything's all messed up and that nothing is going to be perfect, and that's why I know that I'm not going to get better here. I need to get out of this place. I need to find my own place and my own pace to breathe at. _

_Kibo's great…but I need to be by myself for a while. I need everything to be quiet, and I need to not have to worry about people coming in the night, or betrayal, or anything bad happening. I need to know that even if I mess up, there's a constant flow of renewal. After a digimon dies, they're immediately brought back in a digiegg…I need to be able to feel like the world is constantly in motion and that mistakes and accidents can get fixed. _

_Sometimes, I feel like I myself need to die and be brought back. Sometimes I wonder if I can have a resuscitation period just like them. Sometimes I hope I'll be able to be born into a new world and that I won't remember all the wrongs that I've done. _

_Kouichi's much stronger then I'll ever be, and he's already been resuscitated once by the digital world. Maybe that's exactly what I need. Maybe…maybe I just need a new life. A life that's away from all of this, away from all the chaos and the confusion. _

_I talked to Kibo about it, and he's not entirely thrilled with the idea, but he told me that if that's what I want, he'll come with me. He said it was the only way that I was going to come back, and I agreed with him. _

_He reminded me that time ran differently in the digital world then it did in the real world, and that I could spend as much time as I wanted there and I'd be able to truly work out everything better. It was the only positive side. _

_I haven't told Kouichi yet…but I think I'll be leaving soon. I don't know what I'm going to say to him, but we haven't been talking much lately anyway. Maybe it would be best if I don't say anything at all, and that I just left. That's probably for the best. _

**Entry Six: **

**Author: Kibo**

**Sources: Takeru Takaishi, Takuya Kanbara, Tomoki Himi, Izumi Orimoto, Junpei Shibayama, Kouji Kohaku, Kouichi Kohaku**

The first time that Kouichi Kimura killed someone, had been in the base. It had been two months after his training exercises had started with Shikou. She always had mannequins set up that he would shoot at and practice his target skills with. He'd gotten pretty good at always hitting a mark, and so she'd brought forwards a "more realistic" version.

There was a mask on the head, and baggy clothing hung off what he assumed was simple framework like it had always been in the past. When he'd raised his gun, he'd thought nothing of it. He'd shot at the body and when blood shot from the wound and a scream hit his ears, he'd frozen in shock.

"You're making him suffer." Shikou told him needlessly. "Finish the job."

He hadn't even flinched when he gave the kill shot. Hhe ended the man's life, and then promptly was sick. She didn't say anything, and she let him go back to his cell early. Kouji wasn't there, and he was grateful for it. They had been staying with each other again since he'd been well again, but right now, he didn't feel like talking to anyone about anything.

When his brother came back, sweating still from his workout, but looking oddly pleased with himself, Kouichi lashed out for the first time. "What are you so happy about?" Kouji was startled by the antagonistic behavior, and didn't seem to know quite what to say.

"I ran the quarter mile in under-"

"Well that's just great. Congratulations. Have you forgotten that this isn't a vacation, and that we're not supposed to be having _fun_?"

"Kouichi…?" Between the two of them, Kouichi was always the more fair tempered, now though, he was flying off the handle and it made Kouji distinctly uncomfortable to be in his presence. He reached out with their bond, tentative at first, but applying pressure when Kouichi didn't react. When the older brother was still resilient, Kouji reached a hand to touch his shoulder. "Brother?"

"Don't touch me! God, can't you just leave me alone?" The elder boy smacked his hand away, and turned to clamber up the ladder to the top bunk. He promptly turned his back to his brother, and Kouji stared at him with wide, and uncomfortable, eyes. He shifted awkwardly, and rubbed his arms in an effort to warm them to a sudden chill he felt.

"Sorry." He murmured softly, before going to sit on the bottom bed. Kouichi was determined to stay mad at him, however, and he kept his back firmly to his brother even as he glared at the wall.

The next day was much the same. This time, Kouichi was more prepared for the fact that the mannequin was not a mannequin. He made sure that his bullets hit their mark each time and that the person didn't die in the process. The whole time he held the gun, Shikou had one aimed at him. If he even thought about turning around to aim it at her, he knew that he would die.

These people did not trust him with anything. He didn't even think she needed to have the failsafe. It wasn't like he had anywhere to go. There was a camera recording his actions here, and right now, he knew that there was evidence of the fact that he killed a man, several men, on film. Shikou needn't worry; he wasn't going to be running away anytime soon. There would only be hell to pay if he did. He already knew that there was no way that he could go back to the life that he once lived. He was a murderer, and there was nothing that would make that alright.

He watched Kouji closely, even though he flat out refused to talk to him under any circumstance. He wasn't sure he could speak to his brother without damaging the inherent goodness there seemed to be ever present in Kouji.

Truth be told, Kouichi was terrified. He was terrified that he was going to end up ruining his brother's only chance at survival and savior. He couldn't go back home, not like this, and he couldn't let Kouji get tainted by what he was rolling off into their bond. The only way to avoid it was to cut him off all together, and maybe _just maybe _Kouji would be free to go.

Seven months after they had been abducted from their home, Rei came to their cell, and met his eyes. He knew without needing to be told, that he was going to be going out on one of the missions that Shikou had been telling him about. He was going to be "doing the Shrine proud" he was going to be taking care of all of the boss's "problems." He felt his heart pound heavily in his chest.

"Come on, kid." Rei murmured, not even bothering to look at Kouji as he unlocked the cell door. The younger boy was frowning at him though, clearly not understanding.

"What's going on?" He asked, trying to figure out what was happening. Their routine had been set for months now. Every day Rei would start by taking Kouichi out of the cell, and he would return fifteen minutes later to take him out. Then they would spend the day in training, and would stop only briefly for a quick meal before training some more. At the end of the day, they would be brought back, Kouichi was always there first – always in a bad mood – and Kouji last.

Today had already started off strangely, because when Rei had arrived, he hadn't taken Kouichi, he'd taken Kouji. Now, it was well past the evening hours and Rei's arrival was throwing everything for a loop. A few beats of terror was searing through him, and he looked at his older brother in concern. Rei didn't say anything, and Kouichi sighed.

"It's nothing." Kouichi murmured and started towards the door. Kouji grabbed his wrist, and held him back. Kouichi tugged it free before Kouji could get his two cents in. "Are you _trying _to get me killed?" The words were a stark slap to the face and Kouji stood frozen as Kouichi left the cell. Rei closed the door and locked it, and they disappeared down the corner.

As they walked together, Rei's irritation of the situation was only growing. "That wasn't very nice." He told Kouichi in annoyance.

"He deserved it."

"He deserved to get told that he was the reason all the bad things in the world keep happening to you?"

"That's not what I said."

"That's what you meant, and it's how he took it."

"Since when did you become proficient in how he takes things?" Kouichi hissed back sharply.

"Kid, you need to get an attitude adjustment. Kouji's not the enemy here."

"Oh yeah? Well who is _Rei? _Who exactly is the enemy? From where I'm standing, that's all of you isn't it? But if I can't take my frustration out on you all then who am I supposed to take my frustration out on!"

"The people you're assigned to kill." Rei's voice was neutral, and it didn't help. There was a curse forming on the normally mild tempered boy's lips. He held it though, and didn't say a word. Instead he walked pointedly at Rei's side and kept his focus on the path in front of them.

Rei led him to a room where Shikou was waiting for him. He stepped inside, and was led to a chair, where he was instructed to sit down and wait in. What followed them was an extensive list of things that he needed to focus on and pay attention to. He was wired, he was given a gun, and he was instructed on the exact path of travel he needed to take in his…target's… house and exactly what he needed to do once he was inside.

Once all the preliminary discussing was done, Kouichi was brought out of the building for the first time in months. His eyes instantly were everywhere; they took in the walls the trees, the gravel, the sky; the cloudy rainy sky, and anything in between. He felt his heart pound heavily in his chest, and he wondered if he would be able to get out and run free.

He knew that that meant that Kouji would be killed, but there was a part of him that was struggling very hard to not care. There was a part of him that just wanted freedom and wanted to get it now and not later. There was something in him that knew that if he just memorized the route they were on, he could get to freedom, and maybe alert the police before anything else happened.

He scoffed at the idea. All that would do was get him into trouble. He was a murderer now, after all, right? He grimaced at the thought, and kept his head down as he was led into the back of a black Lincoln towncar. It was the nicest vehicle he'd ever been in, and it made him shiver slightly as he sank down into the leather. How many of these cars had he seen on the road, and never imagined what was inside them?

Rei didn't try to talk to him, and he sat beside him. He had a palmpilot in his hands that he was clearly communicating with someone. After a moment though, he glanced up at Kouichi and decided to ask him a question. "Want me to bring your brother to see you when you get back?"

"No." Kouichi murmured darkly, rubbing at his arms and trying desperately to feel some semblance of normal. Right now he felt like he was Duskmon again, just an essence of darkness of death that took his vengeance out on the world for the soul purpose of killing everything in his path.

Rei didn't say another word, and they sat in silence as the van moved down the city streets. It pulled over after an hour or so, and Rei glanced down at him. "You have three hours, then meet at the extrication point. If you're late…"

"I got it." Kouichi murmured. The door opened, and he stepped outside. The car drove off and he shivered. It was his first step out into the free world since he had been kidnapped. It wasn't raining, but it had done so recently. The ground was still wet, and he knew that there was going to be mud all around him.

Forcing himself to remember the maps that he'd been shown for the past few days, and the plan that Shikou had forced into his head, he took a few steps down the path towards the home where his mark would be staying.

He would die for his brother, and apparently…he would kill too.

The plans that Shikou had given him were specific, and every detail of the home's perimeter was calculated into the framework she'd given him. He pulled a mask over his face, and then he easily managed to sneak inside the home. It hadn't taken him long to find the room he was supposed to wait in until his mark arrived.

The waiting was boring, but he didn't dare move or make a sound. He could hear people moving as guards checked the outside wall again and again. He listened to anything and everything, and through it all, his breath remained steady and even.

Then, movement came. The door to the room was thrown open, and he heard crying. Peering through the crack in the door, Kouichi watched as a tall man – his mark – threw a small child onto a bed. The boy was no more then five or six. He was screeching in terror and crying for his mother.

The man was tugging at his clothes, ripping them off of him in an attempt to start some sordid deed that was unmentionable. Hot anger poured into Kouichi's body and he threw the door open to the closet. The man whipped around, momentarily distracted as he stared at him in shock. Kouichi didn't let him have time to talk, and he lifted his gun.

_Front sight, back sight, trigger press, FIRE! _

The bullet ripped from his gun, and the recoil only twitched his hand a bit. The man's body shuddered and a death gurgle was pulled from his teeth as he slumped onto the bed bonelessly. It was the first time that Kouichi had seen his kill's face, and for a moment, he couldn't pull his eyes away from the man. He couldn't pull his gaze from the man's open eyes or his sickening pose. He had been prepared to sexually assault a young child, and Kouichi couldn't feel remorse for the death.

The boy was still screaming, this time in terror. Kouichi didn't have to think twice though, he moved towards a phone that was on the stand and he dialed the three digit emergency code. He didn't say a word after that, and he quickly moved towards the window that was his escape route.

Clambering out of it, he climbed down to the bottom completely unharmed, and had slipped away into the night before the police or the guards even knew what had happened. He pulled the mask that he was wearing off as he walked down the street, and when various cop cars drove passed; he kept his head angled downwards. No one noticed him, and he slipped easily and comfortably into the shadows.

He made it to he extraction point with time to spare, and eventually a black towncar pulled up in front of him. The door opened and Rei stepped out. He looked at him casually, before motioning for him to get inside. "Get in." Kouichi did so without question, his body moving of its own accord.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the vehicle, they immediately zoomed in on the sleeping or unconscious form of his brother that was leaning against the other car door. His wrists were bound in front of him. There was a bad cut on his cheek, and a few other lacerations accompanied with dark bruising were on his arms, and blood had dried on his clothes. Kouichi felt his innards twist at the sight.

"You said you wouldn't hurt him if I did what you said!"

"The kid tried to go after you; it wasn't my choice at that point. I gave him a sedative to knock him out for a while; he'll wake up in about an hour or so." Kouichi moved to his brother's side, pulling the broken form into his arms. As angry as he was with the situation, he didn't want anything to happen to Kouji. It was why he was doing all of this in the first place. "Have trouble?"

"The mark is dead."

"Ah…" The man didn't seem particularly interested in that fact. "Your brother's turn is next."

"I'll do it." Kouichi replied easily. "I don't want him to." Kouji's wounds were worse then they looked the first time he'd seen them. They were actually very deep and it looked like some form of whip had come down on him for quite some time.

"To bad you don't get a say in it." The twin glared up at him with all the hatred in the world.

"Why the hell are we doing this? Why'd you kidnap us in the first place? To play vigilante for you? Well screw you, you prick!" The man moved so fast that the boy's head cracked against the back window of the car. Kouji fell from his arms and slumped against the car door even more. Kouichi was hanging breathlessly as the man held him effortlessly by the throat.

"I thought we'd beaten this rebellious streak out of you, it appears as though we were wrong. Let me make myself very clear here. You have no say in anything that our organization does. You are neither our friend nor our ally. What you are is a slave that works for us and maybe gets fed from us. You will not speak until you are spoken to and you will not argue what I say. I don't have to tell you jack shit, and you had better get used to disappointments, because that is exactly what you're going to get at the ends of all of this. Do you understand?"

Kouichi nodded weakly, his lungs burning. He knew better then to fight back against his captor but it didn't matter. His brother was terribly injured and he had just killed someone. He was so shell shocked at the moment that he wasn't even thinking straight about anything. The man released him and he fell back into his seat. He pulled Kouji back into his arms and he held his unconscious brother close to his chest as tears fell from his eyes.

"And another thing. I didn't have to bring that brat with me, I don't have to let you two stay together. I could have him so far away from you that you would never even know if he was alive or dead. But you know, I figured you'd like to see a friendly face even though you didn't want to see it in the first place. Be grateful that you get to see each other at all. One more word out of your mouth about anything else and you'll never see the brat again, got that?" Again Kouichi nodded, this time burying his face in the crook of his brother's neck as he tried to escape the man before him. He would not be able to live through this if he couldn't be with his brother. He just didn't know how to say that or now to communicate to the world that he desperately, _desperately_, needed help.

Despite his best efforts, Kouichi couldn't stop what was fated to come. He knew the moment that Kouji had killed someone for the first time. Rei had brought the severely shaken boy back to the cell, and Kouichi just _knew_. He could feel the anguish rolling off of his brother in droves. The younger teen promptly placed himself in front of their pitiful excuse for a toilet and vomited.

He was shivering violently, badly, his mind was disjointed, dysfunctional. The whole while, he kept murmuring things that made Kouichi burn with hatred towards their captors. "It's what you did, isn't it? Back then…you…they made you…and me…" he couldn't seem to say the words. It hadn't mattered then though, and Kouichi had done what he hadn't allowed Kouji to do for him.

He sat by his brother's side, put an arm around his shoulder, and held him while he cried harder and harder.

That night was the first night that the nightmares came.

After that initial kill, Kouichi watched his brother like a hawk. Every movement, every break in the schedule, everything was memorized. It had to be. When they both returned from training, Kouji would rub at his hands, as though trying to wash off something that wasn't there. _Blood_. Kouichi's mind supplied for him.

He was trying to wash nonexistent blood off.

Kouichi wondered if Kouji had felt the blood of the man he'd killed, and if he had known what was going to happen when it had.

By now, they both were resigned to their fates. When the day came that Kouichi returned, and Kouji was still sitting on the bottom bunk, his knees drawn up to his chest…Kouichi knew that that night was the night Kouji would kill someone outside the complex.

* * *

><p>For Takuya the new school year started like a funeral. The school was herded into an auditorium and everyone had to sit through the boring lectures and reminders that the faculty felt impassioned to tell them about. Now though, he didn't have his best friend to sit next to and chat about life. Now, he was sitting and talking to no one. His head was angled downwards, and he had nothing good to say to anyone.<p>

Izumi's parents were talking about returning to Italy, and so her days at school seemed to be dwindling. Right now, she sat beside him, but neither knew what to say to the other, and both were too miserable to talk about anything.

They were halfway through the rudimentary schedule when the principle put a picture of Kouji and Kouichi on the screen. The image made the digidestined freeze and look downwards in misery. Someone asked them "hey, weren't they your friends?" and they nodded listlessly in return.

"Please keep Kouji Minamoto, and his brother Kouichi in your hearts and minds. Through their memory, remember to keep safe, lock your doors at night, and to not speak with any adult that you are not familiar with."

The words made Takuya want to scream. Kouji and Kouichi didn't just _go off _with any adult that they met. They had locked their doors, and were sleeping in their beds, when they simply vanished. No one seemed to understand that they weren't at fault! No one seemed to realize that they hadn't done wrong! No one seemed to put together the fact that they were good people and that they hadn't done anything to deserve the bad reputation or the kidnapping they'd been subjected to.

The bell rang, the assembly was dismissed, and Izumi and Takuya left to go to their individual classes. Math class always brought pain and frustration with it. The stinging memory of the last time Takuya had even seen Kouji had been when he'd teased him about his test grades. Now, on overwhelming surge of guilt was flooding through him. It was the last time he would see the twins, and he was giving them a hard time.

Tomoki had joined the soccer team at school, and was surrounded by Katsuharu and Teppei who looked after him. Takuya had gotten into a fight with him recently, unfairly claiming that the younger boy was forgetting that Kouji and Kouichi were his friends first, and that he was betraying their memory by hanging out with Katsuharu and Teppei.

Junpei and Izumi made him apologize, and he did so sincerely. The stress of waiting was getting to be too much for them, and time was passing too quickly for them to hold onto it.

They met at Shibuya station after the first day of school, went to the elevator and prayed that Ophanimon would open the gateway that would allow them back into the digital world. They ended the excursion as they had every other excursion before then, in the basement – crying.

They were starting to feel, for the first time, that they were never going to see their friends again. For the first time, they were starting to give up, and drift apart.


	7. Chapter 7

**Windstar: **This chapter is the first chapter where we really see a major difference from the original story. Hopefully this will make things a bit easier to read, and also give a new perspective to things. I hope you all enjoy! Thank you once again to my wonderful reviewers!

**Chapter Seven: **

_+600 days_

_Time: 1200_

_Author: Kouichi Kohaku_

_That bastard! That bastard! He promised, we left Japan together, for the sole purpose of working out our problems and getting back home. He promised he would try, he promised that he would try to get his feet back on the ground, and what does he do? He does what he's always done – run away and sulk. _

_I'm sick of it, I'm sick and tired of his attitude and behavior. If he wants to run away and hide, fine let him! Let him! I don't care any more. I'm going home, and he can go wherever the hell he wants to go. I don't care if I never see him again. _

_Screw him. _

**Entry Seven:**

**Author: Kibo **

**Sources: Yamato Ishida, Hiroaki Kanbara, Takuya Kanbara, Tomoki Himi, Izumi Orimoto, Junpei Shibayama, Kouji Kohaku, Kouichi Kohaku**

Rei came in silence, and he took Kouji away in silence. The younger twin followed behind him, his face pale, his eyes hollow. He looked like the walking dead, and it terrified Kouichi. He'd been tempted to beg Rei to let him kill the man instead, but he'd been doing so every day on their walks to the training room. Rei hadn't budged, and Kouji was falling deeper into the mind-set that they were planning out for him.

Unlike his brother, Kouji had excelled at hand to hand combat and weaponry. It was what Ryu specifically trained him in, and his skill in blades had grown exceptionally since he'd begun his training. When he'd started, he thrived under the day to day attention that Ryu gave him, and the encouragement to do better in a field that he was naturally talented in.

Now, after having inadvertently stabbed several men to death, he couldn't find enjoyment out of the field any longer. In fact, every time he saw a sword he flinched and was reminded of the feel of death. The feeling that overcame his mind and numbed his body whenever he snuffed out a life.

He felt as though his very soul was shattering in his chest, but he moved onwards. Kouichi was doing this for him, so he would do it for Kouichi. It was as simple as that. It was a mathematical equation that worked, and his mind accepted the information and the boundaries that the problem had.

Rei led Kouji to the conference room, where Ryu ran over the logistics of what it was that he had to do. Kill a man praying at a temple, could the desecration get any worse? He didn't think so. He didn't complain or comment as Ryu finished wrapping up the details of the mission, and then he wordlessly followed Rei to the car.

"You alright?"

"No." He replied softly.

"Hey…brat, just breathe okay?" Rei placed a hand on Kouji's head. "You're going to be okay."

"You promise?" The question was asked sarcastically, and Rei couldn't answer it. Instead, they both slipped silently into the vehicle and motioned for the driver to head out. It was time to leave.

As they drove, Rei kept his eyes on the teenager that sat beside him. His hair had grown out quite a bit over the past nine that he had been staying with them. It was pulled back in a long ponytail that was in desperate need of a good grooming. His face was paler then it had been in the past, and he looked defeated in all sense of the word.

Kouichi seemed to be handling things better; at least his attitude was normal. Kouji was pulling everything into himself, and was shutting everyone out. That type of behavior only got worse over time, and Rei had a stinking suspicion that after a while he was going to have some heavy problems to deal with. Kouji's mental state was far too fragile for the line of work they were involved in, and it was going to get him killed.

The car stopped at the bottom of the temple steps, and Kouji quietly slipped from it. He walked up the stairs at an agonizingly slow pace, dragging his feet the whole while. It took him nearly fifteen minutes to reach the top, and the quiet calls of the night were surrounding him, masking his presence.

There was only one man at prayer here. His knees were folded out in front of him on a dark blue mat, and his hands were clasped together. He was murmuring a prayer in spiritual verse, and Kouji moved quietly up to him. He knew it the moment the man recognized that someone else was with him.

"You've come to kill me, haven't you?" The man asked, not sounding too surprised. Kouji winced, and his hand gripped the hilt of the sword Ryu had given him. He'd never had the people talk to him before. It made his heart clench tightly. He didn't know if he could do this.

"Yes." He murmured softly. The man turned his head slightly, a sad smile formed on his features as he looked him over.

"You're so young…too young to kill."

"I have to."

"I know. I know how Satsu thinks, how he works, and I know that you have no choice."

"Satsu?"

"The man you work for, or has he not told you his name?"

"No." Kouji whispered quietly. The man smiled slightly.

"What is your name, son?"

"I'm not your son."

"No, but you have a name, don't you?"

"It's…Kouji."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Kouji." The man tipped his head in a polite bow, and Kouji found himself reciprocating. The man's prayer beads jingled in the evening breeze. "How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"So young…too young." Sighing slightly the man shook his head. "Is it worth it? The reason you must kill me? Is it worth risking your soul?"

"It's my brother. They'll kill him."

"So it is worth it."

"Yes…"

"Hold onto yourself, Kouji. It's the only way you'll make it out of there alive." The man smiled to him. "This has been a wonderful conversation, thank you for indulging my last few moments."

"I'm sorry." Kouji murmured softly.

"You'll be fine. You'll make it out one day Kouji."

"Why are you supposed to die?"

"I didn't pay them back. I suppose in your world, my partner failed, and it is my job to pay the price."

"My brother…"

"Yes, the situation is similar. Except for you, I expect it to be much worse. You best make your stroke quick boy, and then make a hasty exit. My guards will come soon."

"Why are you letting me do this?"

"Because, you're so young, you deserve a chance to escape…where I do not. My best wishes to you, Kouji. To you and your brother." Kouji gripped the sword tighter in his hand before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Then, finding the exact spot he needed to cut through. He raised his katana and brought it down. He barely even noticed it when the body slumped to the ground, or blood splattered all over his body and weapon. He simply stood there, standing in shock, as he ran over the surreal conversation in his mind.

He slowly, numbly, turned away from the mess, and began to walk back down the steps and down to the car that he needed to leave by. His mind was dull, and his brain stopped working. His movements were memorized, mechanical. He hardly took note of it when he reached the bottom and opened the door to the towncar.

Rei glanced at him for a long moment, before sighing and taking out a bag from under his feet. Inside were some cleaning supplies that he hastily began to employ. Kouji didn't even seem to notice as Rei began to wash the blood off of his face, his hands, his arms. He didn't seem to notice as his shirt was tugged over his head and replaced. He didn't seem to take note of anything. Instead, he stared out the window, and hoped that the man was right. He hoped that he still did deserve to be saved, and that Kouichi and him still had a chance to get out of this life.

"You're going to be okay." Rei murmured softly, but Kouji knew, just as well as Rei did, that that probably was a lie. He didn't know how things could possibly be okay. He didn't know how things could possibly get better. Everything felt dull and lifeless.

* * *

><p>One Year, four months, two weeks, five days, and twelve hours since the abduction of Kouichi and Kouji, Hiroaki Kanbara sat at his desk, and stared at the worn out file in dismay. There was nothing, not a speck of new information, not a brief comment of anything. There was nothing to go off of, nothing to help them with, nothing to assist in the investigation. There was absolutely nothing.<p>

His fellow coworkers were busy calling him obsessed and he just couldn't think about anything else lately. Closing his eyes, and running his hands through his hair, he let out a defeated sigh. There was nothing he could do now. He hated going back to Takuya and telling him that there was nothing else that he could go on, but he was honestly out of ideas.

"You look like you've aged a decade since I last saw you, partner." The teasing tone had him snapping his head up and blinking in dumb shock at a young man he hadn't seen in years.

With neatly combed blonde hair, and bright blue eyes, the man before him had been a shining star in their police force before heading off for a better job offer. He was the head of Serious Crimes in Tokyo, but he was humble enough to know that he got his start right here, as the junior detective working the graveyard shift right along side Hiroaki Kanbara.

"Yamato Ishida, man has it been a long time since I've seen you. How've you been?" He asked, smiling genuinely for the first time in a long while. He held out a hand but disregarded it in favor of a hug.

"Doing well, doing well."

"How's Sora? The kids?"

"Fine on all fronts. Yourself? I haven't been by in a while, but Takuya's…fifteen now right?" A pained look crossed Hiroaki's face at that, and the blonde frowned. "You alright, partner?" He asked gently, placing a hand on the man's shoulder and giving it a brief squeeze. "Want me to buy you a drink?" Usually the request was denied, but right now the man was in desperate need of someone to talk to.

"Sounds great." Grabbing the well worn case file from his desk, he wrapped up everything he was working on, and let Yamato lead the way. The blonde still had a bemused expression on his face, and Hiroaki sighed. "What'd you really come by for?"

"Not really important I don't think, I'll tell you later. Where do you want to go?" Hiroaki motioned off to the left when the reached the sidewalk outside, and Yamato followed his lead with a confident and self-assured walk. Moving gracefully through the crowds, he gave polite smiles to anyone who glanced in his direction, and when a woman kept a looking longer then was appropriate, he easily moved his hand so his wedding band was easily spotted. Hiroaki rolled his eyes at the display.

"I can't believe how many women still throw themselves at your feet. You're married with kids already!"

"I'm just naturally charming, what can I say?" Yamato asked, smiling brightly at him. The neon sign for a bar caught his attention, and they quickly entered it. The lights were dim, but they easily managed to weave their way through the crowd to an empty booth in the back. "What's going on Hiro?" Yamato asked gently, his face filled with open concern. "Is Takuya alright?"

"He's fine…he's fine…it's just…well…look at this, would you?" The detective passed the file he'd been holding to his old partner, and the blonde opened it with slight trepidation. Frowning slightly as he read, he flipped through several pages and photographs, looking at all the statements and notes that were made on the situation.

Hiroaki waited patiently, ordering a drink and nursing it while Yamato read. He knew by the time his old partner finished reading he'd have had an extensive look through everything and would have questions to ask. It only took him fifteen minutes, and when he finally finished, his blue eyes lifted to look at him, and they were sharp with the same gaze he used whenever he was preparing a case to work.

"You knew these kids personally?" He asked immediately.

"Takuya did, they met on some online thing, and they became his best friends. Them and three other kids were completely inseparable. I've never seen anything like it. One week Takuya comes home complaining that he has no friends and everyone around him is a jerk, the next week he's got five kids coming over every day playing video games and acting like they'd spent years together." Yamato smiled faintly at that.

"Sometimes you just meet the right people." He suggested gently.

"Yeah, maybe. Anyway, the twins went missing over a year ago, but there's been nothing to add to the file since then. No ransom demand, no money trail, I've kept a close eye on Kousei, Satomi, and Tomoko, but none of them look like they had anything to do with it. I'm running out of options, kid, and I don't know what to do. Pretty soon I'm going to have to tell Takuya for certain that the case is being put on the backburner."

"From how old it is, it wouldn't surprise me if you said that it's been there for a while." Yamato murmured, glancing at the pictures and dates once more.

"Well over a year by this point. I know the first twenty-four hours are the most critical, and that after that it's unlikely that they'll ever be found, but I've hoped…I've hoped that something might have come up."

"Do you want me to see if I can find anything on my end? I have access to different sources then you do." Hiroaki looked like he'd just seen gold, and he smiled broadly at his old partner.

"That would be great, thank you so much." The man sighed and ran a weary hand over his face even as he sipped at a drink he'd ordered while Yamato had been reading. "You know…Takuya and his friends go to Shibuya station every day…maybe to see them or something? Tempt fate? I just wish I had something I could give them…make them see that everything is alright."

"I'll see what I can do, Hiro. Now, you know this case, and these kids better then anyone, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" The older man shook his head quickly.

"Not at all, please. Anything!"

"You said that Takuya met these kids online…where exactly did they meet?" Hiroaki looked like he wasn't quite certain what this had to do with anything, so Yamato plowed onwards. "If they met in a chat room, there might be previous posts they made there, something that could have drawn attention from an outside source." The man nodded in understanding and sighed.

"It's funny, now that you mentioned it. When the kids first started coming over, I looked into it. I didn't want Takuya just going off to meet anyone that he met online, and so I wanted to make sure it was safe."

"That was pretty smart." Yamato praised lightly. "What'd you find?"

"Nothing. I couldn't find the place at all. The only thing that I found were books and the like written by a…Takeru Takaishi."

"TK?" The name slipped from Yamato's mouth before he could stop it, and Hiroaki blinked.

"You know him?"

"He's my kid brother, he writes children stories. What exactly were you searching for when you looked for this chatroom?"

"Some online forum called…the Digital World. People in it were digidestined. They role-played games, had monster avatars or something like that. It was all very strange." As he spoke, Yamato's face had grown very serious all of a sudden. His eyes dropped back down to the photos that the file had of the twins. He was scanning them for something that he didn't find, and Hiroaki stopped talking as he realized how much tension was filling in the young Agent's body. "Are you alright?"

"Fine, there were a few cases several years ago that revolved around the Digital World, and I was thinking about them. Do you mind if I talk to your son? The server was supposed to have been shut down, but if there is another way people are accessing it, I'd like to know how they're doing it."

"It's not illegal is it? What he's been doing?"

"No, no absolutely not. It's just, there have been times where it's been the case of obsession crimes and it's always good to keep in mind how these things are being used. I promise it won't take too much time."

"Right…well…I'm sure that Yuriko won't mind." Hiroaki didn't look certain, but Yamato smiled at him.

"I really appreciate it. It'll be a quick conversation, and if you'd like, I can tell him I'm taking over this case for you so you won't have to worry about seeming like the bad guy if it really does stay as a cold case." Looking like he just won the Lottery, Hiroaki practically shot to his feet in excitement.

"Let's go now, Takuya's going to be so happy to hear that it's moved up the chain of command."

"Right." Yamato smiled politely, and stood up to follow him. "Hey, do you mind if I call Sora quick? I just need to let her know I'll be home later then I originally planned."

"Not at all, go right ahead." Hiroaki smiled, and motioned for him to do just that. He started to walk down the street to give him some privacy, and Yamato quickly dialed the memorized number onto his cell.

"Hey…Sora? It's Matt, look…I need you to do something for me. Call Koushiro and have him check up on the gate for me would you? I think something might have happened recently that needs to be looked into. I'll be home late." There was a quick and hasty reply, but the conversation ended relatively quickly after that. Hurrying to catch up with Hiroaki, Yamato was relatively quiet as he listened to the man talk about his wife, Yuriko, and sons.

He always like the Kanbara family, and in truth, he'd only stopped by because one of his coworkers had told him that Hiroaki was taking on too much work and was becoming obsessed. Now though, he feared he might become obsessed too. He didn't like how this was all feeling, and there was a part of him that was very concerned with the children and their involvement in the Digital World.

They reached the Kanbara residence in no time though, and he didn't have too much time to think about what he was going to say or how he was going to broach the topic. If he knew digidestined, and he was pretty sure that he did, then he knew that flat out asking them about the Digital World meant all he was going to get were lies. He needed to prove that he was actually one of the chosen as well, and to do that, he was going to need to be completely alone with Takuya and Hiroaki couldn't interrupt.

Yuriko looked flustered when he walked through the door, but he quickly smoothed things over with her by sentencing Hiroaki to his punishment for not informing his wife properly of their guest. He took that opportunity to walk up the stairs and talk to Takuya before he could be derailed from his train of thought.

Knocking lightly on the door, he waited until he heard the disgruntled acceptance for entry, and he pushed open the door. He hadn't expected to see a group of children all sitting together, but from the descriptions he'd been dealing with over the walk from the bar to here, he was pretty certain he knew who they were. Still, manners. "Hello Takuya, long time no see."

"Matt? What are you doing here?"

"Your father invited me over after a chat we had. You must be Takuya's friends, Izumi, Junpei, and Tomoki?" He asked politely, and the youths looked at him in bemusement. "Sorry, my names Yamato Ishida I used to work for Takuya's father, and we were discussing your friend's case tonight after work."

"Wait a second...Yamato _Ishida_? You're – you're- _you're_!" Izumi was glowing red as her mouth dropped.

"A detective and special agent for Japan."

"You're the lead singer in that band the-"

"Nah not me. I'm just your average officer of the law." He smiled slightly, and shook his head.

"You know something about Kouji or Kouichi?" Takuya asked, cutting off anything that Izumi wanted to say. Yamato glanced at the door he stood at and he stepped inside and closed it softly.

"That depends really." He murmured, before turning around and looking at them all with a calculating expression.

"On what?"

"On what you can tell me about the Digital World." He stated simply. The group instantly became extremely rigid and uncomfortable, and from the sidelong glances they were sending each other, he wondered just how many variations of the story they'd spread to everyone they knew.

"It's an online chatroom thing that we all were apart of at one point." Takuya replied calmly.

"So you don't think it's possible anyone from this…chatroom…could have taken your friends? You gave a meeting time when you all met up, isn't it possible someone else was there too?" He wondered how far they were willing to take their lie.

"It's possible…" Junpei murmured quietly, biting his lip and looking at the others worriedly.

"When's the last time you went to the Digital World?"

"Over three years ago." Izumi stated firmly. Yamato nodded.

"When's the last time you had contact with anything from the Digital World?"

"Over three years ago."

"You never tried to go back?" It was an honest question, one that was met with awkward gazes.

"The…site was taken down. We couldn't figure out how to get back…on it." Takuya explained weakly.

"Ah, and Kouji and Kouichi…you think they might have been taken by something from the Digital World?"

"Taken by something…what are you trying to get at man?" Junpei asked bitterly.

"I'm honestly wondering how far you're going to extend this lie of yours." Yamato replied with a wave of the hand. At the same moment, his phone rang, and he answered it. "Sora? Sorry Izzy…you got to my house quick." He sighed slightly. "Actually, your digidestined are right here. I'm sure they're going to want to hear this." Clicking it so that it was on speakerphone, he held the device up towards the group. "Go ahead Koushiro."

"_Right, well, I did some digging. It seems like three years ago there was a disturbance in the barriers between the Digital World and the real world. Not as bad as the last time, but it was significant none the less. A few seconds after the disturbance, there was another one."_

"For the return trip?" Yamato asked mildly, taking some amusement from the children's startled and amazed faces.

"_Yeah, I pinpointed the focal point of the energy and it was in-"_

"Shibuya Station."

"_Hey, if you knew already, why'd you call me?" _

"I didn't, Sora did. Has there been any other surges since then? Have the gates opened since three years ago?"

"_Not that I can tell, it seems like it's been relatively quiet. I did do a sweep of the area just to make sure, and it seems like nothing truly interesting has happened since then. I contacted TK and Kari to check up on Patamon and Gatomon though, did you know that they're in charge over there now?" _

"Fancy that." Yamato murmured with a wry smile.

"Wait a second, you're telling me that _you know _what the Digital World is?" Junpei asked, staring up at Yamato with wide eyes.

"_Not to quick on the uptake are they?" _It was a new voice this time, and even Yamato frowned slightly.

"Taichi, what're you doing at my house?"

"_Corrupting the youth, Takeru and Hikari are here too, but they're still on the wire with their little-big buddies. Going by Ophanimon and Seraphimon now."_

"Wait, what on earth are you talking about? You guys _know_ Ophanimon and Seraphimon?"

"No, we knew Patamon and Gatomon, and as years passed they continued to watch over the digital world until they became named guardians. So, why don't we talk about that little adventure?" Yamato cut in, giving them all a dirty look.

"What does this have to do with Kouji or Kouichi?" Takuya hissed.

"It has everything to do with them. You keep trying to get to the Digital World."

"How do you know?"

"Because your father told me you all keep going to the station. If that's where you left from, your continuing to return there is your attempt to go back. But, none of you have any idea how you'll even make it back if you start tumbling down that rabbit hole do you?"

"We'll figure it out when we get there."

"_That's a good way to get yourselves hurt." _Taichi's voice stated evenly as he spoke over the phone.

"_The Digital World isn't a balanced place, and if you don't know for certain you can just come out of it, you can get stuck there for a long period of time. From how long it took you guys to get back, you were there for what? Ten months? Twelve? More then a year? Do you really want that to happen again?"_ Koushiro continued, voice calm despite the situation.

"You just said that it was only a few seconds between when we left and came back." Takuya mumbled, clearly bothered by the accusation that was, for all intents and purposes, true.

"Yeah, and a few seconds is a long time when the time difference is so askew." Yamato replied simply. "Listen, we can check into the Digital World for you, but don't keep trying to go off by yourselves. It's a good way to get hurt."

"_Ophanimon says that she shut down the barrier between the two worlds on purpose, and that no one has come in or out." _This time it was a young woman's voice, and Yamato sighed slightly.

"No one, Hikari?" He clarified.

"_No one, when we pressed her on the issue, she verified that there hasn't been a single human in the Digital World since everyone was sent home last time." _

"Thanks everyone, I'll call you all back later, alright?" There were various goodbyes from several other people, and Yamato hung up the phone with a sigh. Looking down at them all he gave them a pointed look. "The gate isn't open anymore. Your friends are truly missing."

"Well, what the hell are we supposed to do, huh!" Takuya shouted, jumping to his feet in agitation. "Going back is the only thing we have, it's the only thing we can try that no one else has tried! Have _you _found anything useful, _Matt_? Huh? No one's even looking for them anymore, at least we're doing something if we go back!"

"Takuya, going back isn't as easy as you seem to think it is. It took a long time for us to figure out how to travel between the worlds, and even then it only worked if the Digital World opened the gate first. Ophanimon closed that gate, you can't go back. None of you can, not without her permission."

"She's lied and misled us before, what's so different now, what if they're really there and it's just another place no one is looking for them." Yamato's heart slowed in his chest, and he sighed heavily.

"If we manage to open a gate for you, a _controlled _gate. Will you be satisfied with a quick journey over? You'll be coming back very soon, but will you be satisfied that you at least got a chance to look around?"

"Yes." All four kids quickly replied. Yamato winced ever so slightly, but nodded his head.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do. Here…" He passed a business card to Takuya. "Give me a call if you guys need anything, alright?"

"Yeah." The blonde nodded his head at them, and then opened the door, and stepped into the hall. All he needed to do now was plan a field trip to the Digital World with four teenagers. Not so bad. Still, now his concern for the twins had grown. He'd been just as surprised as the new digidestined when he'd heard the gate hadn't opened. Usually in cases where digidestined just disappeared, it was because they had some involvement with the Digital World, this wasn't the case though, and it was making him more concerned.

Something didn't settle right in his stomach. He couldn't understand how two kids could just vanish out of their beds and not be found, and have no trace of where they went or what they did. In all other crimes that he'd seen that were similar, it had been an inside job, but Hiroaki had been looking into their parents, and come up with nothing.

Maybe he just wasn't looking deep enough. It was something he'd have to look in to. Right now, he needed to play happy guest, and he smiled as he went back in to talk to Yuriko and Hiroaki. He told them that Hiroaki was off the hook, and now Takuya expected him to find the twins. The older man was insanely grateful for the news, and Yamato just smiled. Saying that was the least he could do, he intended to do so much more.


End file.
